Fisheries

• Tuesday, April 26th 2016 - 08:04 UTC

  Falklands renews VMS capability contract for tracking over 150 vessels

  

  Big OceanData has been awarded a contract to provide the Government of the Falkland Islands with its vessel monitoring system (VMS) capability for another five years. For the first time the system will include AIS data, which will be integrated with existing Inmarsat tracking data from the fishing vessels.

• Tuesday, April 19th 2016 - 00:31 UTC

  Falklands reports poor catches of squid; reimbursement of licenses to be considered in June

  

  Falkland Islands authorities have confirmed that Illex squid capture has been particularly low this fishing season, a situation that could lead the Islands government to reimburse part of the license fees paid to catch cephalopods.

• Thursday, April 14th 2016 - 21:08 UTC

  Mysterious death of tens of tons of sardines in south Chile; consumption banned

  

  Chile’s government has temporarily banned the consumption of sardines in the south of the country after hundreds of thousands of dead fish turned up floating along the shores of Queule River.

• Thursday, April 14th 2016 - 09:23 UTC

  Chilean company fined by Argentina after admitting operating with Falklands' license

  

  Argentina's Ministry of Agro-Industry has slapped the maximum fine to a Chilean fishing company, firm Empresas de Desarrollo Pesquero de Chile SA (Emdepes SA), a Chilean subsidiary of the Japanese group Nissui for illegal fishing activities in 2014 in Argentina's EEZ, close to the Falkland Islands.

• Thursday, April 7th 2016 - 09:43 UTC

  Indonesia sinks 23 foreign fishing vessels caught poaching, bringing the total to 170

  

  Indonesian authorities sank 23 foreign fishing boats this week saying they were “operating illegally in the archipelago's vast waters in continuation efforts for anti-poaching”, China's Xinhua news agency reported. This brings the number of vessels destroyed by the Government under the policy to more than 170.

• Friday, April 1st 2016 - 01:30 UTC

  Falklands bid farewell to Sea King Helicopters

  

  The Falkland Islands community bid farewell to two Search & Rescue (SAR) helicopters today after over three decades of service. Both the two RAF Sea King helicopters were brought to the capital Stanley today for the local community to say goodbye, as well as meet the crew who man the aircraft. The new AAR helicopter, which will replace the existing RAF SAR service, was also present at the farewell today.

• Thursday, March 31st 2016 - 08:25 UTC

  Chile confirms the loss of 39.000 tons of salmon equivalent to toxic algae

  

  Some 25 million of fish -- equivalent to 39,942 tons of dead biomass -- was the final balance of the emergency caused by algae bloom in 45 farms in the salmon farms of the southern region of Chile, Los Lagos, reported SERNAPESCA, director José Miguel Burgos. A several month’s bloom of toxic algae causes ravage in south Chile salmon and trout farms.

• Thursday, March 31st 2016 - 00:14 UTC

  Beijing reminds Argentina of the jigger sinking before a possible meeting of Macri with Xi Jinping

  

  Beijing said that it “expects Argentina to perform according to law” in reference to the recent sinking of a Chinese flagged jigger by the country's Coast Guard and which was operating in Argentina's EEZ. The announcement is considered significant in Buenos Aires since Argentine president Mauricio Macri is expecting to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping in Washington, next Friday in the framework of the Nuclear security summit.

• Tuesday, March 29th 2016 - 02:59 UTC

  Falklands waiting UK reaction; extended continental shelf does not apply to mobile species such as squid

  

  The Falkland Islands Government, FIG, reacted to the Tuesday official Argentine announcement of its extension of the continental shelf saying it was waiting clarification from the UK government on the implications, if any for the Islands. What is certain is that it does not affect fisheries or squid catches, one of the Islands main source of income.

• Monday, March 28th 2016 - 05:55 UTC

  Japan announces it has harpooned 333 whales in Antarctic waters; conservationists outraged

  

  The Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR), the body behind the Japanese government’s whaling program, announced the return of the Japanese whaling fleet from its Antarctic operations. It is the first time that the Japanese whalers have returned to the Southern Ocean to slaughter whales since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled its whaling program to be illegal in 2014.