Despite the significant efforts by the Javier Milei administration to eliminate illegal fishing in the Argentine Sea, the pressure exerted by the Chinese fishing fleet appears to be continuously increasing, whether operating at the limit of the so-called "Mile 201" or attempting to illegally enter the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) belonging to Argentina.
A recent investigation indicates that Chile has become a new logistics center for these vessels, serving as a closer refuge from which to operate in the Atlantic sector of the Strait of Magellan. Every year, around November, hundreds of vessels from the Asian giant, which have previously exploited the waters off Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, move to fish off the Argentine coast.
Traditionally, ports such as El Callao in Peru and Montevideo in Uruguay were strategic points for foreign fleets, including Chinese ones. However, after illegal fishing was detected within its EEZ in 2018, Peru tightened controls on foreign vessels.
This caused the Chinese presence in its ports to decrease since 2020. A brief regulatory relaxation between 2023 and 2024 allowed a temporary return, but the reinstatement of strict rules once again closed the doors to those vessels that refuse to comply with basic regulations.
"In this context, Chile has emerged as the new logistics hub," explains a report prepared by Milko Schvartzman, a fishing specialist at the Environmental Policy Circle (CPA). "Since mid-2024, northern Chilean ports such as Arica and Iquique have recorded an explosive increase in the arrival of Chinese fishing vessels, rising from zero entries in 2023 to 25 in the same period of 2024, while in Peru entries fell from 61 to zero," the investigation details.
