However, there are no Chinese-flagged vessels off the coast of this, the westernmost island of the Azores.

A source from the Portuguese Navy told Notícias ao Minuto that this was something that was "injected intentionally or not" into the platform, and is therefore "fake".

In addition to sailing at a speed much higher than normal, the vessels almost always appear in the same spot, which in itself is suspicious.

Despite this, both the Navy and the Air Force patrolled the area and did not find any vessels, according to the Regional Government of the Azores on its official website.

“The inspection and patrol mission of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Azores has been successfully completed, following the alert given about 20 fishing vessels, flying the Chinese flag, to the south and southwest of the island of Flores”, they begin by saying, adding that “the naval unit of the Local Command of the Maritime Police of Flores was on site and did not check any vessels”, as well as the aircraft of the Portuguese Air Force.

“It flew over the area beyond the reference area, including up to the limits of the national EEZ of the Azores sub-area, and did not see any vessels in this group”, they highlight.

Therefore, according to the Azorean Government, everything leads us to believe “that this is AIS Spoofing”, that is, a deliberate manipulation of system data to deceive maritime vessels or monitoring systems.