BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Conservationists see the expansion of a marine reserve across a wide area of the Pacific from Ecuador to Central America as an important step toward thwarting giant Chinese fishing fleets that are accused of plundering fishing stocks. But enforcement is likely to be a challenge.
Under a plan announced Tuesday, the governments of Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica said the famed Galápagos Islands would be united via a marine corridor with Colombia’s Malpelo Island and the Cocos and Coiba islands off Central America. The goal is to mark off a stretch of ocean twice the size of Arizona as off-limits to industrial fishing.