Chinese fishing boats illegally fishing in waters near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea soared this year, promoting the Korea Coast Guard to beef up a crackdown.

According to the Coast Guard on Sunday, the number of Chinese boats illegally fishing in the areas shot up to a daily average of 100 this year, representing a threefold increase from about 30 in 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the surge, the Coast Guard is deploying more patrol ships in the country's southwestern waters while conducting a preemptive crackdown.

The Coast Guard is also sharing related information with the Oceans Ministry and the Navy and conducting joint patrols and crackdowns, seizing 50 Chinese boats for illegal fishing as of the end of November, up more than 50 percent from a year earlier.

A Coast Guard official said that during the pandemic, the Coast Guard usually evicted illegal fishing boats to prevent the inflow of the virus, but recently, it shifted to capturing them to eradicate illegal fishing by foreign vessels.