Between January 2007 and December 2016, a total of 1,186 ships have been subjected to accidents in an area on the East China Sea which extends from 160 nautical miles from Shanghai, towards Indochina, Indonesia, the Malay Peninsula, the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
In 2016 alone, 34 ships sunk in the region, dubbed the New Bermuda Triangle, which accounted for 44 percent of all boat-based accidents of the year.
The latest came on January 6, 2018, when a Panamanian oil tanker called crashed into a Sanchi a freight ship from Hong Kong called CV Crystal.
All 32 people on board both ships died in the incident.
Experts believe the horrendous weather in the region plays its part in the reason behind so many crashes.
For 300 days of the year, strong gusts can reach a staggering 13.8 metres a second which can create waves as tall as 10 storeys.
Ex-tanker captain Rahul Khanna, the Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting at marine insurer Allianz, told Big Think the crashes could be down to a combination of bad weather and how busy the area is.
He said: “Some have dubbed this wide region as a ‘new Bermuda Triangle’.
“I wouldn’t go that far but it is certainly the number one region worldwide for major shipping incidents.
“Not only are the seas here very busy, but they are also prone to bad weather and, although I can’t speculate on this event, some safety standards in the region are not always as high as one would expect from established international standards.”
Volker Dierks, head of Allianz’s ship insurance for central and eastern Europe, added that “ships are getting bigger”.
Recently, China has announced that it is planning to build a high-speed railway bridge over the New Bermuda Triangle.
Chinese workers are convinced they can complete the high speed railway bridge over the Pingtan Strait within a year, despite experts fears they are constructing in a “no-go zone” for bridge builders.
The challenges to build the bridge are almost unheard of with the Pingtan Strait famous for its strong winds and perilous conditions.
The project will see a two level structure built between the mainland and the island that will be a staggering 11 kilometres long – some 45 times longer than London’s Tower Bridge.
Up to 300,000 tonnes of steel and 2,660,000 tonnes of cement will be used to build the bridge which would be enough to build eight Burj Khalifa towers.
The bridge will have an eight lane highway on the top and a railway bridge on the bottom which will allow trains to travel up to 200 kilometres per hour.
The 310,000 mile (500,000km) square patch of ocean between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda has long been associated with the vanishing of ships and aircrafts which have stumped experts looking for an explanation.
Up to 1,000 people have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, leaving experts stumped to offer up an explanation.
An average of four planes and 20 boats have been reported lost a year, with no trace of any debris, due to the Gulf Stream being believed to move them away.