MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fisheries News.

Headlines:
Argentine Navy arrests Taiwanese jigger; EC expedites relief to tsunami-battered fisheries.

Argentine Navy arrests Taiwanese jigger

The Argentine Navy corvette ARA Guerrico from the Maritime Patrolling Division arrested last Thursday a Taiwan-flagged jigger poaching Illex quid in Argentina's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). According to official reports from the Santa Cruz Naval Zone the Taiwanese jigger, Hsien Hua 6 (B12051) was detected by a naval P3 Orion aircraft poaching 168 nautical miles to the southeast of Puerto Deseado, in the province of Santa Cruz. ARA Guerrico was sent to intercept the Taiwanese jigger which instead of halting its engines as requested set off towards international waters. The Taiwanese squid jigger with a 30-member crew, was finally caught by ARA Guerrico which then proceeded to send a six man party to board her and inspect the hauls. The primary conclusion was that the Hsjen Hua 6 had been illegally catching squid in Argentina's EEZ at the moment of its aerial detection. The jigger was then arrested and escorted by ARA Guerrico to Puerto Deseado where she will be facing charges for violation of the Argentine Fisheries law. The case is under jurisdiction of Rio Gallegos Federal Court (FIS/MP).-

EC expedites relief to tsunami-battered fisheries.

Tsunami-hit fisheries will benefit from a new European Commission (EC) initiative that will bring more immediate and long-term technical assistance to affected countries. An expert team will assess the needs of the fishing and aquaculture sectors and move to get the rehabilitation projects underway. The EC also announced that it would remove legal obstacles to expedite the co-financed fishing vessel transfer programme. This will be done via amendments to the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG). Before moving ahead with the plan, however, the EC must make sure that a number of prerequisite measures are in place should the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) study conclude that a permanent vessel transfer will indeed help rebuild tsunami-battered fishing fleets. "In co-ordination with the FAO and the Member States, we must ensure that our measures respond to the needs of the local sector in a way that will contribute to sustainable fisheries. Monitoring of the implementation will also be crucial to the success of these measures", said EC Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg. The programme will put experts from Europe and other countries to work on the assessment right away. Once completed, the EC will provide a team of technical and financial experts to implement the requirements.(FIS/MP).-