Between Wednesday, November 6 and Tuesday, November 12, the Maritime Zone Patrol Vessel (OPV) “Comandante Toro”, together with Helicopter N-22 of the Helicopter Squadron HU-1, carried out an Oceanic Surveillance Operation off the coast of Chile, near the “Nazca Desventuradas” Protected Marine Park.
In this context, the fishing vessels “Admiral Shabalin”, “Mainoris” and “Margiris”, flying Russian and Lithuanian flags, were identified and controlled. The first two were in transit, not carrying out any fishing activity, while the Margiris was engaged in trawling outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
To this end, the Naval Helicopter monitored the area and verified the fishing vessels by making graphic records confirming that they were not carrying out fishing activities within the Chilean EEZ.
In this regard, the Commander of the OPV “Comandante Toro”, Frigate Captain Mauricio Carrasco, provided details of this inspection, stating that “as part of our permanent tasks, we are carrying out an Oceanic Fisheries Inspection Operation at the outer limit of the EEZ of the Desventuradas Islands, approximately 750 nautical miles from the continent, which allows us to safeguard and monitor the work carried out by foreign fleets in terms of compliance with international regulations in our waters of jurisdictional responsibility, as well as safeguard and patrol the marine parks in the area, in this case the Nazca – Desventuradas Marine Park”.
The park covers an area of 300,000 km2 and the Chilean Navy is tasked with safeguarding it to protect the marine environment and its resources. In addition, our country has created a series of protected marine parks, with an area of more than 450,000 km2 , with which it seeks to comply with international treaties and policies for the conservation of biodiversity and the protection of marine ecosystems and the aquatic environment.