Illegal fishing in Uruguay: There are more than 350 foreign vessels operating in the South West Atlantic, expert says

Last Tuesday, 11 tons of squid were found in a Chinese flagged vessel that was captured by the Uruguayan Navy, after a chase that took place between Sunday night and early Monday morning. After this news, the issue of illegal fishing in the South Atlantic and in Uruguayan waters was again a topic on the newspapers in the last hours in the country’s media. In this regard, Uruguayan marine biologist and oceanographer Andrés Milessi, coordinator of the One Sea project, spoke on the radio program En Perspectiva and affirmed that there are between 350 and 400 foreign ships operating in the Western South Atlantic. Read also: 11 tons of squid found on Chinese vessel fishing illegally in Uruguayan waters “Most of them are Chinese, but there are also Taiwanese, Portuguese, Spanish, of various nationalities that come to fish here,” he said. However, Milessi clarified that those fishing outside the 200 jurisdictional miles of each country, that is, in international waters, is a fishing ...