GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, July 1
Thanks to the Vessels Satellite Monitoring System used now by the Direction of the Galapagos National Park (DPNG), a tuna boat was captured.
Is the fishing vessel Don Mario, registered in Manta, which had come within the Galapagos Marine Reserve. It was reported that the vessel had the permission of the Navy to conduct operations outside the reserve, as reported by La Hora
In the center of operations Don Mario’s route was monitored by the DPNG , from east to west in the Galapagos, realizing that this slowed the boat speed at times, which indicated that it was fishing, which is prohibited for vessel that are not artisan legally from Galapagos.
Around 23:00 the Don Mario was located at 10 miles south of Puerto Villamil, Isabela, which had a crew maintaining a device (FAD) which adds stocks like tuna, billfish, and other non-permitted species, such as turtles and other protected within the Marine Reserve.
The capture of the Don Mario gives evidence according to the organization Sea Shepherd that commercial tuna boats for Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela are fishing illegally inside the Galapagos Marine Reserve.
Sea Shepherd Galapagos has been collecting tuna detection devices, so-called “tuna balls” that are being found on a very regular basis inside the Marine Reserve. These tuna balls relay information about fish abundance, water temperature, and GPS location back to the commercial tuna boats and based on this information their ships are sent out to these locations to catch the tuna. Lucky for Sea Shepherd, the owners put their vessel’s names on the balls. Only days before the Don Mario was caught fishing, a local fisherman found one of their tuna balls floating at the exact same position as where the vessel was caught.
Source: La Hora Ecuador – Sea Shepherd
