Image: Armada de Chile
Sernapesca and the Navy monitor the transit of the Chinese fleet through the exclusive economic zone
(CHILE, 5/4/2023)
The National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) together with the Chilean Navy, through the General Directorate of Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine (Directemar), maintain permanent active surveillance to control maritime traffic in our national spaces, in especially on the occasion of the transit of Chinese-flagged ships that these days are moving from the Atlantic Ocean to the fishing zones in the central zone of the Pacific Ocean, crossing through the exclusive economic zone and marine protected areas of our country.

Photo: Chilean Navy
Given the concern that this means, both for citizens and for the country's fishing agents, the vessels are controlled and inspected through the satellite monitoring system used by both SERNAPESCA and the Chilean Navy, as well as through the network of existing sightings, ruling out so far that they have carried out fishing operations in our national spaces.
“We are inspecting the Chinese fleet that already traditionally moves through this area in this period of the year. It is about 350 ships that move from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean and vice versa, in search of the squid resource, which is a smaller squid and is caught on the high seas with the jigging system”, said Soledad Tapia, National Director of Sernapesca.
The Chilean Navy, through its Search and Rescue Service, has monitored the transit of this fleet for more than 20 years, and SERNAPESCA, since October 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, where it was detected that the same fleet that was operating in front of to the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, moved through our EEZ towards the Atlantic Ocean, to carry out fishing operations off the coast of Argentina.
There are records of Chinese-flagged vessels crossing the Strait of Magellan since 2012, which can be observed through the Global Fishing Watch application. If any of these foreign ships wishes to call at a national port, it must comply with the provisions of D.S. N° 123 of the year 2004, its regulation (Res. N° 1659 of the year 2004) and the Agreement of the measures of the Governing State of the Port of the FAO.
<-- Photo: Chilean Navy
“Since we began joint inspections with the Navy, no foreign-flagged vessels have been detected fishing within our Exclusive Economic Zone. Monitoring is a job that we do daily and, during the month of April, we have registered 61 vessels that are in transit to their new fishing area, and it is highly probable that this number of vessels will increase in the coming days,” Soledad Tapia added.
The Chilean Navy periodically carries out fishing control operations, through ships and aircraft, both inside and outside the Exclusive Economic Zone, in order to carry out effective control over foreign fleets, whether in transit through our Exclusive Economic Zone, as well as its operations in the High Seas. The foregoing, with the purpose of, first of all, verifying that extractive activities are not carried out in national waters by foreign vessels and, in case of detecting them, adopting the corresponding legal measures. In the same way, on the high seas it is verified that the operations carried out by the fleets comply with the conservation measures established in the regional fishing organizations in which our country is a part or a cooperator, with the aim of safeguarding national maritime interests. , ensure sustainable fishing and prevent, discourage and eliminate Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Source: Sernapesca
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