Ship: Seahorse
Name: Laura Sánchez
Date: 01/03/23
Ship’s Activity: Monitoring
Table 1. Panga counting done during the night of the 28th of February from 20:00 to 00:00 with radar observations. There were no pangas seen either inside or outside of the ZTA.
Total | Pangas ZTA | Pangas ZTA Buffer Zone | Pangas Outside ZTA |
0 | 0 | 0 |
Table 2. Panga counting done during the 1st of March from 00:00 to 15:00 with radar observations. The hours not represented in this table correspond to hours when no pangas were seen in the ZTA or outside.
Hour | Pangas Inside ZTA | ||||
Total |
Net Fishing | Divers | Potential Net Fishing | Crossing | |
06:00 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
07:00 | 21 | 0 | 16 | 5 | 0 |
08:00 | 32 | 1 | 30 | 0 | 1 |
09:00 | 31 | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0 |
10:00 | 24 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 |
11:00 | 24 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 |
12:00 | 21 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 |
13:00 | 15 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 1 |
14:00 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Hour | Pangas ZTA Buffer Zone | |||
Total |
Net Fishing | Divers | Potential Net Fishing | |
10:00 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Pangas Outside ZTA | |||
Total |
Net Fishing | Divers | Potential Net Fishing |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total number of different pangas fishing today in the ZTA: 1.
Total number of different pangas fishing today in the ZTA Buffer Zone: 0.
The morning started with a few diver pangas in the ZTA, but between 7:00 and 8:00 the numbers had increased to the maximum seen today. At 8:00 we approached a panga that was inside the ZTA just at the border in the central area to the north, and when we got close we were able to see that they were retrieving what looked like a flounder net. We contacted the Navy and the panga finished retrieving the net 15 minutes later, which had ended up in the ZTA buffer zone by then. They stayed in that position with the line of the anchor tied to their bow until 8:52. Then they pulled the anchor up and moved inside the ZTA. Minutes later, they started to retrieve a second net. A Nave vessel defender arrived at 9:25, approached the panga and stayed close by until they finished retrieving the net at 10:12. Then the panga left towards San Felipe and the defender went south to patrol.
Around 13:00 the wind and the swell increased, and we continued monitoring until shortly after 15:00 when we went south to cope with the weather.

Figure 1. Panga activity in the ZTA today 1st of March.

Figure 2. Radar screenshot at 08:00, with the panga retrieving a net (target 39) in the ZTA border (red line) and cluster of diver pangas in the center area.