MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay drafting new fisheries law

Uruguay is putting the finishing touches to new fishery legislation to replace the current Law dating from 1969, announced director of the National Directorate of Aquatic Resources (DINARA) Yamandú Flangini during a conference at the Maritime League of Uruguay.

Mr. Flangini said that the new bill to be presented to Congress was drafted by experts from the Pacheco Areco Institute belonging to the ruling Colorado Party, consulting InfoPesca reports from 2002 and recommendations from a FAO technical team which studied the sector's institutional matters.

Mr. Flangini anticipated that the current ruling fisheries organisation would continue to issue licences to catch in international waters. Licenced companies will be monitored by a state-of-the-art global positioning system (GPS) to be issued to onboard observers so as to corroborate the vessel's position independent of the vessel's own monitoring system.

He also emphasized that observers "must be worthy of DINARA's trust, adding that for controls to be more efficient, staff with greater seniority would be replaced.

Regarding the recent episodes involving Uruguayan flagged longliners apprehended for allegedly poaching in Australian waters, Captain Flangini stated that the pursuit of "Viarsa 1" and arrest of the "Maya V" was not legally correct, since uninhabited islands are not entitled to an economic zone according to the Law of the Sea. He accused those nations who claim sovereignty over the 200-mile waters surrounding "islets," to be expansionist colonialists.

However the director of DINARA underlined that the position of the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the matter, which presides over these matters, for different reasons, may differ from his own opinion. (FIS/MP).-