MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Crew scuttles Taiwanese jigger caught poaching

The crew of a Taiwanese jigger under hot pursuit from the Argentine Navy for illegal fishing flooded the vessel and set her on fire before being picked up by another waiting jigger.

The "Jim Chin Tsai" finally sunk this Tuesday in the South Atlantic at 13:20 hours.

According to a release from the Argentine Navy, corvette ARA Drummond was on a regular fisheries patrol on Monday when at 23:00 hours she sighted the Taiwanese jigger illegally operating in the Argentine Economic Exclusive Zone, 330 nautical miles east of Comodoro Rivadavia.

The jigger was ordered to prepare for a boarding party that would register fishing gear and hold, but the captain of the "Jim Chin Tsai" ignored instructions and instead fled at full speed towards international waters.

The hot pursuit continued until 05:00 early Tuesday when the crew flooded the jigger, set it on fire and fled in rafts to a another waiting Taiwanese jigger.

An Argentine boarding party managed to extinguish the fire but could do nothing about the flooding given the adverse climatic conditions.

ARA Drummond belongs to the Maritime Patrolling unit and is stationed in Mar del Plata.

This is the second incident of this kind involving Taiwanese jiggers. Last January 25 the "Ching Hsing" was caught poaching in Argentine waters by the corvette ARA Granville and also refused to be inspected fleeing towards international waters.

Early morning the crew flooded the vessel, set her on fire and fled in the "Yu Long Fa" that was waiting to pick them up.