Chinese authorities in three coastal provinces have joined in a first-ever multi-province campaign to crack down on illegal sand mining at sea.

The maritime law-enforcement campaign began on Monday, and comes less than two weeks after TradeWinds broke the story of a large-scale offshore sand trade, in which bulkers of up to post-panamax size load in the waters of the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea off Shantou, outside of the coastal shipping lanes.