Chile Deploys Warship to Monitor Chinese Fishing Vessels Off Its Coast

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A U.S.-built warship, the Admiral Montt, joined the Chilean Navy’s surveillance fleet to monitor and maintain updated information on the threat of Chinese fishing vessels sailing off the country’s coast.

After the presence of the Chinese fleet transiting the Pacific Ocean was confirmed, the Chilean Navy began to develop a robust control protocol to monitor the vessels’ behavior, aimed at fishing squid.

The control system of the Chilean Marine Corps has had more demands in recent days, since it was warned by the country’s industrial and artisanal fishermen of the sighting of Chinese vessels, which had already been detected in Ecuador and Peru.

On November 23rd, the Chilean Navy supplied the first data. A pilot of the C-295 ACH “Persuader” belonging to the Chilean Navy, Commander Andrés Gallegos, admitted having made visual contact with two vessels sailing under the Chinese flag. In a joint effort with the Cabo Odger warship, they marked Chilean presence before the vessels which are a predatory threat to the Pacific’s marine species.

“What I saw was that the vessel was sailing in a perfectly normal way. At least the positioning and machinery reports, given its speed, looked quite normal,” he says.

As days went by, the Chilean Navy released further data on the passage of Chinese vessels, this time located off the coasts of the regions of Arica and Parinacota and Tarapacá, almost two thousand kilometers from the capital Santiago.

Nevertheless, the passage of predatory vessels towards the south of the Chilean coast was also monitored, registering the passage of vessels towards the Argentinean sea through the Strait of Magellan.

The Navy’s plan is to permanently monitor the passage of the Chinese fleet. To this end, the incorporation of a new warship will ease inspection efforts to prevent fishing stoppages, which result in the depredation of marine fauna.

Accordingly, the Chilean Navy’s tanker Admiral Montt is joining the monitoring squadron’s efforts, which has already recorded the passage of the Asian ships, along with the Airbus C-295 ACH “Persuader”, and the Cabo Odger tanker.

The AO-52 Admiral Montt is a fleet tanker and logistical support vessel built at the Northrop Grumman Avondale shipyard in New Orleans commissioned by Chile to the United States. It was acquired by Chile in May 2009 to replace the aging Araucano tanker.

The Montt was assigned to surveillance upon returning to Chile after completing a two-month logistical deployment in support to the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard (USCG) operations in Central America, where it monitored the activities of a group of about 50 vessels 420 nautical miles off the coast of Arica.

According to the Chilean Navy branch, the inspection operation of the AO-52 Admiral Montt tanker is the result of coordination, planning and enforcement of the Naval Operations Command (COMOPER) and the General Directorate of Territorial Waters and Merchant Navy (DURECTEMAR) through its technical directorates.

In the records of last November 10th, images were captured by the same Chilean Navy personnel during a control drill on the passage of Asian vessels. The operation was conducted during transit back to the city of Iquique, located in the north of Chile.

“The inspection was conducted approximately 240 nautical miles off the coast and 650 miles off the northern port”, detailed the OPV-84 commander, Frigate Captain Luis Felipe Díaz. The Cabo Odger patroller, part of the Navy’s IV Naval Zone, supported by an onboard naval helicopter, conducted video and photographic records of the fishing vessels’ activities and established communications with one of their logistics vessels, in order to confirm their identity and activity.

The Chilean Navy’s surveillance work has intensified in recent days. According to the DIRECTEMAR website’s report, which is part of the Navy branch, “as part of the Chilean Navy’s ongoing efforts to control and monitor national waters, and with the evidence that two fishing vessels were heading towards the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Islas Desventuradas, a P-3ACH Orion aircraft was deployed to conduct a marine surveillance flight. Using all its sensors, the aircraft succeeded in recording and confirming the vessels’ position, taking photographs and recording film and audio”.

“In addition to conducting an interrogation of the fishing vessels transiting towards the south and at a constant speed through the Chilean Exclusive Economic Zone, it was possible to confirm that they were not engaged in fishing activities,” it stated.

Based on the history and surveillance of over 400 Chinese vessels, the Navy has introduced a new specialized surveillance device. With the incorporation of the Montt tanker, it expects to maintain a permanent monitoring of the passage of fishing fleets such as Chinese trawlers given their potential operation in Chilean waters.