<
https://usa.oceana.org/publications/reports/oceana-finds-hundreds-vessels-vanishing-along-argentinas-waters>
"An Oceana analysis found hundreds of foreign fishing vessels, primarily
Chinese, pillaging the waters off Argentina and disappearing from public
tracking systems. These distant-water fleets mainly fish for shortfin squid,
which are vital to Argentina’s economy and the diet of numerous commercial and
recreational species, such as tuna and swordfish.
Oceana analyzed the activity of fishing vessels along the border of Argentina’s
national waters from January 1, 2018, to April 25, 2021, using Automatic
Identification System (AIS) data from Global Fishing Watch (GFW), an
independent nonprofit founded by Oceana in partnership with Google and
SkyTruth. AIS devices transmit information such as a vessel’s name, flag state,
and location. Of the fishing visible on GFW, Oceana documented over 800 foreign
vessels logging more than 900,000 total hours of apparent fishing. The analysis
also revealed that 69% of this fishing activity was conducted by more than 400
Chinese vessels. In comparison to the foreign fleets, 145 of Argentina’s
fishing vessels conducted 9,269 hours of visible fishing in this area during
the same period — less than 1% of the total amount.
As part of this analysis, Oceana documented more than 6,000 gap events,
instances where AIS transmissions are not detected for more than 24 hours,
which potentially indicates vessels are disabling their public tracking
devices. These vessels were invisible for more than 600,000 total hours, hiding
fishing vessel locations and masking potentially illegal behavior, such as
crossing into Argentina’s national waters to fish. The Chinese fleet was
responsible for 66% of these incidents."
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
