Ship: Seahorse
Name: RPH
Date: 17/04/2023
Ship’s Activity: Monitoring
Table 1. Small fishing boat counting was done during the night of the 16 th of April from 20:00 to 23:59 with radar observations. The hours not represented in this table correspond to hours when no pangas were seen in the ZTA or outside.
| Hour | Boats in the ZTA | Boats in the Buffer Zone | Boats in the VR |
| 22:00 | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| 21:00 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| 22:00 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 23:00 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Table 2. Small fishing boat counting was done on the 17th of April from 00:00 to 20:00 with radar observations. The hours not represented in this table correspond to hours when no pangas were seen in the ZTA or outside.
| Hour | Small fishing boats ZTA | ||||
|
Total |
Net Fishing | Divers | Potential Net Fishing | Crossing | |
| 08:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15:00 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 16:00 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17:00 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 18:00 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 19:00 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Hour | Small fishing boats ZTA Buffer Zone | |||
|
Total |
Net Fishing | Divers | Potential Net Fishing | |
| 08:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 16:00 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 17:00 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 18:00 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 19:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Hour | Small fishing boat Outside ZTA | |||
|
Total |
Net Fishing | Divers | Potential Net Fishing | |
| 00:00 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 01:00 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 15:00 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| 16:00 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 17:00 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 18:00 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 19:00 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Total number of different small fishing boats fishing today in the ZTA: 5, 4 initially, one started after.
Total number of different small fishing boats fishing today in the ZTA Buffer Zone: 7.
All afternoon, fishing boats were detected stationary outside of the ZTA in the north area.
Around 16:00 some of the fishing boats crossed inside the ZTA, as we patrolled the central area. The MV Seahorse approached the area and sent the drone to get information on the nets and confirmed 4 boats fishing. After confirming the illegal fishing, the Navy was contacted. The Navy sent the interceptor and the warship Vallarta started to approach the area. Two of the boats left the area when they saw the navy approaching, the other 2 remained to pull nets.
The navy arrived and started to pull one of the nets, another boat from the outside of the ZTa went in and started to approach aggressively the navy boat, the boat started to pull the other side of the net to cut it in half. The other two boats finished pulling their nets and left the area, in direction of San felipe. The navy vessels stayed around to patrol the area.
Figure 1. Small fishing boat activity in the ZTA today 17th of April.
Figure 2. Radar screenshot at 17:18, boats fishing in the north of the ZTA.
