Ship: Farley Mowat
Name: Jason Fonseca
Date: 25/10/2022
Ship’s Activity: Patrolling
Table 1. Panga counting done during the 25th of October from 13:50 to 17:30 with radar observations. The hours not represented in this table correspond to hours when no pangas were seen.
Hour | Panga Inside ZTA | Panga Outside ZTA | ||||||||
Total | Shrimp | Divers | Unknown | Other | Total | Shrimp | Divers | Unknown | Other | |
13:50 | 25 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 |
14:50 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 |
15:00 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 |
15:15 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 63 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 0 |
15:40 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 0 |
16:00 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 0 |
16:30 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 0 |
17:00 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
17:30 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
Notes: Arrived in ZTA at 13:30 on 25/10/22. Patrolling started at 13:50. Lots of panga activity was observed the whole day. Other hours most panga activity was too far to observe. “Other” at 17:30 were two pangas meeting briefly one of which passed by very close, the one with flashing red and blue lights. “Other” at 13:50 & 16:00 are pangas with unclear activity that approached us. Other at 15:40 is panga Nicole/Gisel pulling non-shrimp net.
Upon arrival we saw 25+ fishing pangas within the ZTA, documented 2 of them. Another 2 pangas without name/ID pangas were seen with nets. Three loose nets were found but lost throughout the day, 2 being suspected Totoaba or Corvina nets. SITREP was sent around 14:00 and Navy arrived to pick up lost nets and drove pangas out of the area. Two pangas approached us throughout the day. Five pangas documented fishing illegally in the ZTA, 3 others had no name/ID or could not make out name/ID. At 17:00 two pangas met up briefly, one was flashing red & blue lights and crossed out stern after meeting.

Figure 1. Two unnamed pangas seen pulling non-shrimp nets. Two lost nets were found and SITREP message to navy was sent (Captain sent official one later). Navy dispatched the Interceptor to retrieve ghost nets and arrived an hour later, but we had lost visual of both nets by their arrival at 15:15. A third net was also found by the time Navy arrived but again lost visual.