{"id":33733,"date":"2026-06-15T14:24:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/china-says-spy-turtles-and-spy-fish-deployed-by-foreign-intelligence-agencies-snooping-in-its-waters\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T14:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:24:35","slug":"china-says-spy-turtles-and-spy-fish-deployed-by-foreign-intelligence-agencies-snooping-in-its-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/china-says-spy-turtles-and-spy-fish-deployed-by-foreign-intelligence-agencies-snooping-in-its-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"China says &#8220;spy turtles&#8221; and &#8220;spy fish&#8221; deployed by foreign intelligence agencies snooping in its waters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Foreign intelligence services are using &#8220;spy turtles&#8221; and &#8220;spy fish&#8221; to snoop on China, the country&#8217;s Ministry of State Security said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;An unseen covert war of espionage is currently unfolding&#8221; in the seas around China&#8217;s coast, the ministry wrote in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mp.weixin.qq.com\/s\/awd00jnXu6wga_lO3DGG_Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">post on the WeChat<\/a>\u00a0social media platform. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, overseas spy agencies have been &#8220;continuously collecting and stealing sensitive maritime data through various new types of espionage equipment,&#8221; it said, including &#8220;spy turtles and spy fish.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/12\/e41e6e97-b922-4c0e-af00-d49e44568ba4\/thumbnail\/620x413\/8a662444b4b372ee18c0d24fffaf2b09\/gettyimages-1241172670.jpg#\" alt=\"World Oceans Day in China\u00e2s Guangzhou \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/12\/e41e6e97-b922-4c0e-af00-d49e44568ba4\/thumbnail\/620x413\/8a662444b4b372ee18c0d24fffaf2b09\/gettyimages-1241172670.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/12\/e41e6e97-b922-4c0e-af00-d49e44568ba4\/thumbnail\/1240x826\/3df1b6745f68e6d073930898df0e403c\/gettyimages-1241172670.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">A green sea turtle is seen during on World Oceans Day, June 8, 2022, in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Stringer\/Anadolu Agency\/Getty<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In certain Chinese waters, &#8220;relatively large living marine animals have been fitted with sensors to swim in specific areas, collect ocean data, and transmit it to overseas satellites,&#8221; the ministry claimed, without providing details on where the animals had been found or which nations they suspected of overseeing the alleged espionage.<\/p>\n<p>The other devices listed included &#8220;detection buoys,&#8221; &#8220;a new type of wave glider,&#8221; and equipment on ships.<\/p>\n<p>The post said foreign spy agencies had for years tried to analyze Chinese naval activities, create &#8220;underwater maps&#8221; of the country&#8217;s maritime coastline and monitor its offshore oil and gas deposits.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry urged researchers, fishermen and vessel owners to remain vigilant and &#8220;report suspicious devices.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>China has previously rewarded anglers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globaltimes.cn\/content\/1176813.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">for turning in alleged maritime spy devices<\/a>. Some have received up to 500,000 yuan (about $73,000) for their help, according to CBS News&#8217; partner network <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-china-51130644\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BBC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese ministry&#8217;s assertion isn&#8217;t the first claim of marine animals being deployed for sabotage. In 2019, a Beluga whale turned up on the Norwegian coast wearing a harness that appeared to have a mount for a small camera, sparking <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/beluga-whale-linked-to-russian-military-is-affectionate-fetches-rings-for-locals-in-norway\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">speculation that it had been trained to spy<\/a><\/span> for the Russian navy.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow never issued an official reaction.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, the British military said Russia appeared to be <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/russia-training-dolphins-for-combat-in-ukraine-crimea-uk-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">training dolphins for combat<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to counter Ukrainian forces. The animals were &#8220;likely intended to counter enemy divers,&#8221; said the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DefenceHQ\/status\/1672118745991397376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672118745991397376%7Ctwgr%5Ea52cd39d6d18e3b273cb30b3415be03d00a622b2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fnews%2Frussia-training-dolphins-for-combat-in-ukraine-crimea-uk-says%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British defense ministry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foreign intelligence services are using &#8220;spy turtles&#8221; and &#8220;spy fish&#8221; to snoop on China, the country&#8217;s Ministry of State Security<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/12\/e41e6e97-b922-4c0e-af00-d49e44568ba4\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/de8a63a255b9e21aaed1d192db8b6570\/gettyimages-1241172670.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}