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If there is something that marked the meeting, it was the permanent attitude of the Chinese delegation against transparency, accountability and inclusion. The Eastern Commissioners put up aggressive, discourteous, and overbearing resistance to a proposal that sought to facilitate the gradual implementation of the use of Spanish in Commission meetings. They thus showed their contempt for Chile, Peru and Ecuador, Spanish-speaking countries from which 95% of the resources managed by the SPRFMO are fished. The same negative expression was expressed when the need to adopt the immediate minimum observer coverage of 10% of fishing days and to show greater transparency in transshipments on the high seas was discussed. Once again we see the terror towards China's transparency, which confirms the complaints presented by our artisanal fishermen regarding their interference in our 200 miles.

 

The initiative to fully implement the Agreement on Port State Measures was not adopted, but a working group was formed to evaluate the tracking systems of fishing vessels for monitoring and surveillance. The intention to create an “area of concern” for the annual collection and analysis of information provided by vessels fishing in this area, such as interaction between vessels, transhipments, catches and interruptions of satellite signals, will be reviewed at the next meeting of the Committee Scientist.

 

Additionally, in our country the International Workshop on the Habitat of the Giant Squid should be developed, to address not only issues of its biomass, but fundamentally its habitat, with the aim of knowing what differences there are in the conditions in which it lives in various areas of the South Pacific. This event will be coordinated by the Humboldt Institute of Marine and Aquaculture Research (IHMA), the Institute of the Sea of Peru (IMARPE), the Peruvian Chamber of Giant Squid (CAPECAL), the National Society of Artisanal Fishing (SONAPESCAL), the Committee for the Sustainable Management of Giant Squid (CALAMASUR), College of Engineers and NGOs promoting sustainable fisheries.

 

Unlike the evasive behavior of Xi Jinping's officials, the world's largest seafood buyers strongly expressed their concerns about Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and its close relationship with serious allegations of human and labor rights violations towards workers in the giant squid fishery. Their claim is, without a doubt, inspiring on the path we will have to follow to protect our squid. It won't be easy, but we will overcome the obstacles outside and those at home as well.

 

The most positive agreement of the meeting was unanimous support for a landmark decision on labor standards, addressing reported human rights abuses in distant water fleets. The Asian giant could not prevent this transcendent measure presented by Ecuador, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

 

It is up to the countries of the South American Pacific, heirs of the great struggles for our rights over the sea and its riches, to coordinate efforts to reach these meetings with solid proposals, without fear or reverence, that allow us to protect both the resources of our jurisdictional seas. , as well as those same species when they transit international waters.

 

 

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