Scientist’s Report 02.23.23

Ship: Seahorse

Name: Laura Sánchez

Date: 23/02/23

Ship’s Activity: Monitoring

Table 1. Panga counting done during the night of the 22^nd of February from 20:00 to 00:00 with radar observations. There were no pangas seen either inside or outside of the ZTA.

Table 2. Panga counting done during the 23^rd of February from 00:00 to 19:00 with radar observations. The hours not represented in this table correspond to hours when no pangas were seen in the ZTA or outside.

Note: the panga in the ZTA buffer zone at 16:00 was the one previously fishing in the ZTA that was crossing back to San Felipe.

Total number of different pangas fishing today in the ZTA: 3.

Total number of different pangas fishing today in the ZTA Buffer Zone: 0.

Yesterday we saw what we believed to be one of the marker buoys of the ZTA (or other possible area) drifting from its position, and today we confirmed it. The buoy was in the center area of the ZTA, at 1 nautical mile from the border. At 7:00 we spotted a panga at the limit just next to a marker that was in its right position, and shortly after the panga moved to the drifting marker buoy and set a net in the water at about 7:20. We contacted the Navy and they sent a Defender vessel and also the warship that was northeast in the ZTA. They arrived at 8:10 at the location, and the panga had already started to retrieve their net. The Defender stayed close to the panga and the warship went around it, crossing between the panga and the other end of the net. At 8:30 an Interceptor vessel arrived and went to the float that marked the end of the net. They started retrieving it, then the panga approached them, stayed for less than a minute and after they left the ZTA, stopping outside the limits of the buffer zone. We could not see clearly how the net got cut. The Defender left to San Felipe around 9:00, passing close to where the panga had stopped. The Interceptor finished retrieving the part of the net around 9:15, which seemed like a shrimp net. Then they left to the east area of the ZTA, with the warship following shortly after. That panga stayed outside the ZTA but in the buffer zone until after 12:00. The Interceptor left to San Felipe around 12:30 and the warship stayed at the north area of the ZTA.

Shortly before 15:00 we spotted two pangas in the south area of the ZTA. When we approached around 15:15 we could confirm at least one of them was fishing and we contacted the Navy. This panga finished retrieving what seemed like a shrimp net and started heading back slowly to San Felipe at 15:28.

At 15:40 we saw how the other panga was also retrieving a shrimp net. After forty minutes they seemed like they had trouble pulling the net; they tied the net to their bow and started going in circles. They finished retrieving it and left towards San Felipe at 16:27. Seventeen minutes later we spotted a Navy vessel Interceptor in the central area of the ZTA going south to our location.

From 14:00 and throughout the evening, several trawlers were seen in the south and west area outside the ZTA, some of them crossing through the buffer zone on their way north.

Figure 1. Panga activity in the ZTA today 23^rd of February.

Figure 2. Radar screenshot at 7:34, with the panga fishing inside the ZTA (target 19) next to the drifting marker buoy (target 20). The Navy warship (target 3) was on its way from the opposite border of the ZTA.

Figure 3. Radar screenshot at 15:00, with the two pangas fishing in the south area of the ZTA (targets 28 and 29).