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  • Writer's pictureFranklin Vega

Foreign tuna vessels fish in the Ecuadorian sea


Photo: Screenshot from https://globalfishingwatch.org/map/


Apparently, 115 Ecuadorian vessels are not enough to extract all the tuna that is in the Galapagos Exclusive Economic Zone. According to the marine monitoring data from Global Fishing Watch, several foreign flag vessels fish in the waters of the Galapagos Islands, the largest marine reserve of Ecuador. For example, the purse seine vessels from Venezuela: Cayude, Rosa Mística from Panama and Pescatún from Nicaragua were registered within 200 miles of the sea in Galapagos. The following graphs show the fishing activity of each vessel (which is marked by a purple line) and a brief description of each one according to the record they have in the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) obtained from: https://www.iattc.org/VesselDataBaseENG.htm



Photo: CIAT https://www.iattc.org/VesselDataBaseENG.htm


PESCATUN, a vessel built in 1973, has a Nicaraguan flag. This ship has a capacity of 998 tons. It is owned by the company Pescatun 3 Panama, S.A.

Photo: Screenshot from https://globalfishingwatch.org/map/



Photo: CIAT https://www.iattc.org/VesselDataBaseENG.htm


CAYUDE, a vessel built in 1976, with a Venezuelan flag. This ship has a capacity of 1095 tons and is owned by the company Atuneros Paraguana S.A.

Photo: Screenshot from https://globalfishingwatch.org/map/


Photo: CIAT https://www.iattc.org/VesselDataBaseENG.htm


ROSA MISTICA, a vessel built in 1977, has a Panamanian flag. It has a capacity of 1,154 tons. It is owned by the company Ingopesca Panamá, S.A.

Photo: Screenshot from https://globalfishingwatch.org/map/


Through Twitter, the Minister of Production, Iván Ontanera, the highest authority in Ecuador in regards to fishing, was asked to inform about the authorization procedure for these purse-seine vessels to fish in waters of Ecuador, both continental and the Galapagos Islands in the Exclusive Economic Zone. We have no answers.

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