How many states are there with access to pacific waters that could potentially have thousands of unregistered fishing vessels and whom a poster would be uncomfortable naming explicitly for fear of backlash?

Seems odd that this is a logical guess, but then that's labelled as "xenophobic speculation".

It's a logical guess that the only country that could have thousands of unregistered ships would be china, one of the worlds leading industrial powers with a large pacific coastline. It's xenophobic speculation that china does in fact have these ships and specifically are the cause of this population collapsing.

Japan engages in illegal fishing all over the Pacific.

It's kind of an obvious dog whistle, come on.

Tell me what other country the OP could possibly mean when they said "countries I dare not to list for being downvoted".

I don't think it could mean Israel given that we're talking about the Bering Strait and not the Mediterranean or Red Sea.

Sure, if you think Israel is well known for overfishing in the Pacific Ocean?

Portuguese fisherman were the big thing off the coast of Canada. Definitely not unique to China, although they seem to use fishing boats as a political tool like Russia uses little green men. But that's closer to their shores.

China has been the subject of multiple high-profile news stories (and popular HN threads) about overfishing. They’re also the standard xenophobic bugbear on HN.

If the shoe fits...