The US Coast Guard launched an operation to combat illegal fishing in the South Atlantic

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is carrying out the Operation Southern Cross, with the support of the State Department, as part of actions to strengthen regional maritime security alliances and fight illegal fishing, unreported and unregulated in the South Atlantic.

The inaugural shipment, for a period of several months, of the new USCG Legend-class National Security Vessel, named Stone (WMSL 758), strengthen cooperation and enhance security throughout the regionthe State Department reported in a statement.

In Guyana, on January 9, the Stone ship and the Guyana Defense Force Coast Guard participated in cooperation exercises against illegal fishing. This is the first operation with these characteristics to be carried out in conjunction with a new shipping agreement ratified in 2020.

The ship Stone has planned collaborate with the Brazilian Navy for joint patrols, with scheduled stops in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. Then it will also land at Montevideo, Uruguay, in the first visit by a US Coast Guard ship in more than a decade.

At the southernmost stop, the ship will visit Mar del Plata, Argentina, where the Naval Prefecture will receive you with a welcome ceremony before the ship returns to origin. An observer from the Portuguese Navy will travel on the Stone and provide support to the crew and the Operation on a daily basis.

During the tour, The Stone will also perform the full suite of USCG institutional missions, as circumstances allow. The crew of the Stone has already intercepted a fast vessel in the Caribbean and, in that action, seized more than 900 kilos of cocaine on January 7, south of the Dominican Republic.

The United States is a global leader in efforts to counter illegal fishing, including through work in multilateral institutions to strengthen the rules governing international fishing and bilateral engagement with the world’s market, port, and coastal states.

The value of global capture fisheries production in 2018 was greater than USD 151 billion and illegal fishing is estimated to generate income losses of tens of billions of dollars each year.

This fishing harms global food security, destabilizes the economic security of coastal States, and violates State sovereignty by violating international agreements and fishery conservation measures. “In the South Atlantic, we encourage our regional partners to be vigilant during our joint work to protect the waters we share, and we urge our partners to ratify and implement international measures such as the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures, ”said the State Department.

Operation Southern Cross is the first Coast Guard patrol of the South Atlantic to occur in recent history.

Chilean fishermen denounced the sighting of Chinese clandestine boats off their coasts

Fishermen leaders from the northern regions of Chile denounced the presence of Chinese clandestine vessels off its shores. Although the Foreign Ministry warns that a formal claim to the Chinese regime has not been necessary, a parliamentarian from the northern area asks to investigate in light of the complaints that are multiplying.

Carlos Ortiz He is the representative of the artisanal fishermen of Caleta Cifuncho, located in the commune of Tal Tal, in the Antofagasta region, located in the coastal area of ​​northern Chile about 1,120 kilometers from Santiago. Artisanal fisherman and diver, he told Infobae the serious situation faced by their union due to the progressive lack of resources in the areas where it is allowed to extract products for them.

The sighting of Chinese vessels has them worriedHe warns, because it impacts the amount of resources available for the extraction of artisanal fishermen.

“Reproduction is impaired, because they come to desolate wherever they go. They come to extract and they do not have the care and disposition that Chilean fishermen can have, because we choose what we can extract taking care of and maintaining the reproduction of the resources, ”he warns.

In Ortiz’s opinion, the explanation for why the presence of Chinese vessels harms them -which are hundreds of kilometers towards the coast- is that marine species have a behavior that makes them transit between the high seas and the coast, and It is especially on the high seas, where clandestine vessels transit, where the greatest predation occurs. Therefore, those species that went to reproduce at sea, do not return to their shores.

“It impacts reproduction. The juveniles go to cover the coast, and then go back out to eat and reproduce, but it turns out that there are the Chinese boats that prey on them, so it hurts us, because they do not respect whether the resources are in the reproductive period. These ships are factories, because they extract, process and take it”, Denounced the leader.

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Chilean fishermen denounce sighting of Chinese clandestine boats off their coasts and fear for their jobs