Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean seabass. (Photo: Stock File)

Govt denounced for allowing company to fish overexploited resource

A group of fishermen has filed a serious complaint against the President of Chile and other senior government authorities for having authorized a company to capture an overexploited resource for ten years.

The Federation of Fishing Workers (FETRAPES) denounced that through a supreme decree issued on March 21, signed by Minister of Economy Jose Luis Cespedes, and Undersecretary of Fisheries Raul Sunico, the Company Globalpesca SpA was for ten years authorised to catch Patagonian toothfish (also known as Chilean seabass), a resource that is currently listed as overexploited and in a state of exhaustion.

FETRAPES recalls that the company had already been questioned in 2013 because after the Court of Appeals of Punta Arenas imposed a huge fine on it for fishing in a closed zone, the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (SUBPESCA), through Exempt Resolution Nº 2.254 (August 9, 2013), assigned to it research quotas of 30 tonnes for the catching Patagonian toothfish.

"These are President Bachelet’s contradictions. We do not know if she does not know what she signs or continues allocating the fishing resources belonging to all Chileans to the best bidder, as she has done so far by refusing to annul an act that allows these aberrations," argued Juan Montenegro, FETRAPES president.

The official explained that the aforementioned decree (DS No. 37) authorized Globalpesca SpA to operate longline factory vessel GlobalPesca II in the tender Patagonian toothfish fishery located south of the 47° LS parallel due to its “incipient development” scheme.

However, Montenegro points out that there is a contradiction with the technical reports because, according to the Public Account 2015 on the state of the fishing resources of SUBPESCA, "the status of the resource is overexploited and in a state of exhaustion." Therefore, the supreme decree signed by the President, the Minister of Economy and the Undersecretary of Fisheries, at least, "is irregular and also illegal," says the leader.

This, he argues, is ratified in a report by the Scientific Technical Fisheries Committee (CCT - RDAP No. 3 2015), which concludes that the Patagonian toothfish stock "is overexploited and in a state of exhaustion".

"It is unimaginable that a Scientific Committee establishes that a resource is about to disappear, and the political authority - illegally - benefits a company, privileging strange economic interests," sentenced FETRAPES president.

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