MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile threatens to cut provisions to foreign vessels in high seas fishing

Chilean Foreign Relations Minister Mariano Fernandez

Chile has warned that if the current talks with the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Organization, RFO (*), prove “unsatisfactory”, the ‘tabula rasa’ resource of Decree 123 will be applied, effectively outlawing provisioning of foreign vessels at all Chilean ports.

The announcement was made by Chilean Minister of Foreign Relations, Mariano Fernandez, who was summoned to the Congressional Fisheries Commission earlier this month.

Chilean lawmakers indicated their concern with the lack of high seas fishing regulation which allows fishing vessels from China and some European countries to over catch jack mackerel (Trachurus murphy) next to Chilean waters, directly affecting the domestic industry.

Additionally some of those vessels enter Chilean waters for fuel and supplies they need to continue their activities on the high seas.

“We secured the chancellor’s definition in terms of the full application of Decree 123. The Fisheries Commission is committed to fully applying the decree, including vessels that offer supplies” if Chile is not satisfied with the negotiations” said Legislator Jorge Ulloa.

“If we see that the conduct of the European Union, in particular, goes against the interests of Chile in the RFO, ‘tablula rasa’ of Decree 123 will be applied” the representative added.

Another legislator, Raul Sunico, indicated: “It is our only tool of negotiation and, evidently, the main effort is to get the agreement to regulate fishing on the high seas to be satisfactory for our interests, preventing the collapse of the species.”

Representative Patricio Vallespin recalled that Chancellor Fernandez was also clear in stressing that “the moment in which it is applied has to be carefully evaluated” since it would not be the best tactic “if that closed the possibility of an agreement with other countries that are in the RFO; temporary measures with the unanimous agreement of all the players involved seems more tactful” Diario Financiero reports.

According to data furnished by Chile’s Fisheries Under-Secretariat (SUBPESCA) 762,443 tonnes of jack mackerel were landed between 1 January and 31 August this year, a volume that reflects a fall of 1.5% compared to the accumulated total in the same period of 2008 when 774,228 tonnes were unloaded. (FIS).-

(*) Regional Fisheries Organisations (RFOs) are created by international agreements. They provide a framework within which the representatives of governments agree on ways of managing the fish resources of the open seas, which are outside the jurisdiction of the individual states. The RFOs play a key role in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) and destructive fishing practices.