MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Fisheries News.-
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Argentina catches Taiwanese jigger; Taiwanese fishermen claim Argentinean Navy sunk their boat; Controversial hake provision on stand for 60 days
Argentina catches Taiwanese jiggerAfter almost a whole day of hot pursuit and some intimidating gun fire the Argentine Navy captured last Friday a Taiwanese jigger illegally fishing in Argentina's EEZ. However, the crew of the "Chin Hsing" abandoned the vessel expecting to sink her and was picked up by another fleeing jigger, "Yuh Long Fa".
The Argentine Navy reported that the poaching incident began late Thursday afternoon when 18 vessels were detected operating eighty miles inside Argentine waters in a straight line from Comodoro Rivadavia.
On being detected the Taiwanese vessels fled and the Argentine corvette ARA Granville, with Orion air support, began chasing the "Chin Hsing". In spite of repeated orders to stop, and occasional gun fire, the Taiwanese jigger kept sailing towards high seas with complete radio silence.
Finally the "Chin Hsing" turned its engines off and when the Argentines were readying a boarding party, the crew abandoned the jigger in inflated rafts and was picked up by another jigger in international waters.
Once on board the Argentine party turned out a fire that had been started in the galley and closed several pumps that had been opened with the purpose of sinking the vessel.
According to the latest report from the Argentine Navy, the "Chin Hsing" was towed to port and the matter is now in the hands of the Federal Justice.
Taiwanese fishermen claim Argentinean Navy sunk their boat
An Argentine warship is alleged to have shelled and sunk a 700-ton Taiwanese fishing vessel trawling illegally in Argentina's territorial waters, the "Chinapost" daily reported on Sunday.
However, the Argentinean Navy insisted that the "Ching Sing" went under because the crew deliberately set fire to it when it was intercepted trawling for squid in Argentinean waters, Taiwan's state-run Central News Agency noted.
Their warship had fired only warning shots at the fishing vessel, Naval officers said.
The 31 crew members of the "Ching Sing" who were rescued by another fishing boat told a Taiwanese radio station that their vessel had been sunk when it was at a position 45 degrees south by 64 degrees west.
Numerous Taiwanese fishing boats have been intercepted, fined or confiscated for allegedly fishing without permission in Argentina's territorial waters
Controversial hake provision on stand for 60 days Due to pressure from unions representing workers and fishery commerce chambers that process products onshore, the Argentine secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Miguel Campos, decided to suspend the implementation of the controversial resolution 73/04 for a 60-day period, until agreement on the norm is reached. The resolution authorises the catch of 69,200 tonnes of Argentine hake (hubbsi) during the first three months of the year for vessels operating to the south of parallel 41º S. While 42 large freezer vessels, which process fish at sea, are given the possibility of operating to the north of parallel 48° S. This measure generated a heated controversy as the fresh fish sector claims it's contrary to the Fishing Emergency Law. This law has regulated fishery until now and is intended to preserve the resource that was on the verge of collapse in 1991.
Fishery businessmen allege that the resolution, drafted by Fisheries Under-secretary, Gerardo Nieto, harms above all companies with onshore plants, which would be forced to cut jobs. They also insist that "there is serious biological risk" for Argentine hake, the main species exploited in the South Atlantic.
"This arbitrary decision would mean paralysing most of the fleet working along the Buenos Aires coast," said the provincial Fishery Affairs under-secretary, Oscar Fortunato, who adhered to the Mar del Plata fishery workers' complaint, arguing that "the result (of the measure) is disastrous for Mar del Plata." "We want to open a petition to debate a new norm," he added.
On the other hand, the president of the Chamber of Deep Sea Vessels Owners, José Ramaci, said that the hake available in the Argentine Sea "is not enough for all the vessels" since the resource is still under emergency threat.
Mr. Ramaci believes the large freezer vessels, many of which are Spanish owned, should withdraw from the Argentine fishing ground because "they are predators that are not admitted anywhere in the world."
The president of the Fresh Fish Chamber of the gulf of San Jorge, José Quercia also talked along the same lines, "If the freezer vessels leave it would solve the problem for those of us who are domestic investors."
On hearing the government's decision, Chubut Fisheries secretary Omar Moises Rapoport, said "the 60-day suspension of the resolution that sets the hake quotas affecting the fresh-fish fleet and the plants in Chubut, is just a partial solution for our province." Mr. Rapoport argued the decision eases the problem but "does not take into account the supply for the integrated companies' plants". (FIS/MP).
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