tirsdag 11. mars 2025

Why Argentina’s military is deploying to surveil hundreds of Chinese fishing boats off its coast

The P-3 propellor plane banks sharply, silhouetted against dozens of shimmering lights in the sea against an Argentine sunset. As the camera pans across the scene, it becomes clear: the glaring lights come from dozens of fishing vessels dotting the ocean below.  The footage, shared by the Argentine military in late February, shows the overwhelming scale of a flotilla near a marine boundary which separates the country’s more restrictive exclusive economic zone from less-regulated international waters.

This area, about 200 nautical miles off the coast of southern Argentina, is notorious for illegal and unregulated fishing — often carried out by Chinese vessels, according to the Argentine Navy. Most of these ships hunt for squid, which are abundant along the Argentine coast and a vital food source in the marine ecosystem.