Members of the Argentine Naval Prefecture (PNA), aboard the Coast Guard cutter ‘Mantilla’ fired upon a Chinese fishing vessel which was caught fishing illegally within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, about 199 nautical miles from the San Jorge Gulf, and tried to collide with Mantilla.
The operation began in the night of 1st March, when the crew of the Coast Guard, patrolling the Argentine Sea, located the vessel “HUA XIANG 801”, which did not broadcast satellite location information through its AIS.
Shortly after, the “Mantilla” started navigating to the fishing boat and found that it had its nets deployed and the working lights on, so the protocol established to prevent illegal fishing was activated.
Firstly, the PNA crew made repeated communications in Spanish and English and issued sound signals, without getting any response.
Then, with the intention of escaping, the offending ship freed the anchor and began to sail towards international waters, while it extinguished all the lights and freed its equipment of fishing. The Chinese vessel also made dangerous maneuvers trying to collide with the Mantilla.
Argentine forces made evasive maneuvers to avoid the collision and they continued trying to communicate by radio with the ship.
Given the lack of response and following the protocol of action, the order was given to make warning shots towards the bow of the fishing boat to stop its route, without affecting its navigation though.
Despite this, the captain of the Chinese vessel did not stop, so more intimidating shots were fired at the fishing vessel, above its waterline. However, the “HUA XIANG 801” did not comply with the order and continued sailing out of the limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone of Argentina, towards international waters.
After three hours of intense pursuit and due to the position and trajectory of the fishing vessel, Mantilla interrupted the operation and returned to patrol area.
The Justice will be requested to capture the vessel in international waters, as happened in February 2018 with Chinese jigger ‘Jing Yuan 626’, which had also been detected by the Mantilla Coastguard fishing illegally.
The owner was then forced to pay Argentina the value of the expenses generated in the persecution operation carried out by the Argentine Naval Prefecture and an additional fine of 7,000,000 million pesos.
