Image: Sea Shepherd / FIS

More than 70 Chinese ships have entered Peru without the satellite device required by the norm

PERU
Thursday, September 21, 2023, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

The following is an excerpt from an article published by Mongabay:

Experts say that between June and August, some 75 Chinese vessels entered Peruvian ports, supposedly to change crew and renew documents, but none of them had installed the satellite device that Peru requires of foreign ships.

Source: Mongabay

Alfonso Miranda, president of Calamasur and former minister of production and vice minister of fisheries, assures that “the Ministry of Production has decided not to apply the decree, which in practice means leaving it without effect or repealing it de facto even though they have not complied not even with the formality of doing so.”

Peruvian ports such as Chimbote and Callao were, at least until mid-2020, the main refueling, maintenance and crew change points for the Chinese fleet operating in the South Pacific.

In August of that year, however, things changed for ships that fly the flag of the Asian giant since Peru established regulations that require foreign vessels that use the country's ports to carry an additional satellite device to the one they already carry. . In this way, the Peruvian authorities can know more precisely what the route and movements of the ship were before entering port.

The provision was celebrated by representatives of the fishing sector and researchers since, according to an analysis carried out by the satellite monitoring platform Global Fishing Watch (GFW), some Chinese vessels could have been turning off their satellite system at the limits of the Peruvian sea to fish illegally.

In addition, the measure was applauded because the Asian flag vessels that operate off the coast of Peru are dedicated to fishing for giant squid or jumbo, which is also the main fishery in the artisanal fishing sector in that country. The supreme decree thus came to protect the source of employment of thousands of Peruvian fishermen.

Since June of this year, however, Chinese flag ships that do not have the required satellite device have begun to enter Peruvian ports with a frequency equivalent to that before the regulation came into force.

Source Stockfile FIS

Fishermen and specialists assure that the supreme decree would be being violated with the consent of the authorities. “This is a very serious fact that endangers the subsistence of the artisanal jigging industry,” says Alfonso Miranda, president of the Committee for the Sustainable Management of Giant Squid (Calamasur), a group made up of actors in the squid industry in Chile. Ecuador, Peru and Mexico.

More than 70 Chinese ships entered Peruvian ports

According to fisheries engineer Renato Gozzer, an expert in governance issues, 75 Asian flag vessels have entered Peru's ports so far in 2023. The majority of these arrivals, however, occurred since June. [Continues...]

Author: Michelle Carrere | Mongabay | Read the full article by clicking the link here (only available in Spanish)

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