With maritime and air resources, the Fourth Naval Zone carries out an Ocean Fisheries Inspection Operation.
Iquique. With the deployment of the Oceanic Patrol Boat “Cabo Odger”, a Naval helicopter and an aero-maritime exploration plane, the Chilean Navy, through the Fourth Naval Zone, carried out a new Ocean Fisheries Inspection Operation, an activity in which vessels were controlled and verified. foreign flag outside the Exclusive Economic Zone.
Said Ocean Fisheries Inspection Operations are framed within the provisions of the 1995 New York Agreement, and seek to develop an international regime for the long-term conservation of straddling and highly migratory fish populations such as Tuna and Chilean Jack Mackerel. . The agreement gives rise to the Regional Organization for the Regional Management of the South Pacific Fisheries (ORP-PS) of which Chile is a part.
Due to the foregoing, the Chilean Navy constantly deploys Units to supervise international fishing fleets, which carry out extractive operations in international waters of the Pacific Ocean.
On this occasion, the OPV “Cabo Odger” went to sea to operate approximately 790 nautical miles northwest of Iquique, with the purpose of supervising and controlling international fishing vessels, verifying correct compliance with the provisions of the South Pacific Fisheries Regulation. .
The Commander of the Unit, Commander José Ignacio Pájaro, mentioned that “the importance of this type of operation lies in the results that are subsequently delivered to the Secretariat of the South Pacific Fisheries Management Organization, who provide for the conservation measures fishing, to prevent vessels that fail to comply with the provisions issued by said organization. For this reason, the work carried out today by the media and the personnel of the Chilean Navy is of vital importance, on whom the responsibility of carrying out the inspection work falls, ”he explained.
The operation was carried out in conjunction with aircraft dependent on the Naval Operations Command, units that carry out air-sea exploration and deliver the exact position of the fishing vessels to the OPV “Cabo Odger”, achieving with this synergy greater efficiency in the use of means.
During the operation, it was possible to control a total of 140 fishing vessels, 32 merchant ships in international transit, exploring a total of 637,620 square nautical miles.