Correspondence
The Outlaw Ocean Project wrote to Patagonia Fishing SA via registered mail in Argentina.
The letter said: "We’re contacting you in light of our research into China’s fishing industry and the practice of ‘flagging in’, whereby fishing vessels owned by companies in one country are flagged to another country in order to access that second country’s waters.
According to our research, Patagonia Fishing operates Argentine-flagged fishing vessels which are under the beneficial ownership of the Chinese corporation, Shandong Bodelong Group.One of these ships is called the Lu Qing Yuan Yu 280. In 2020, the Lu Qing Yuan Yu 280 dumped overboard thousands of pounds of fish from Argentine waters, according to footage shared by an Argentine engineer who recorded the incident on his cell phone. He said the captain had ordered the dumping to make space for new catch in the ship’s freezer. We understand that after learning of his footage, Patagonia Fishing fired him.
We have the following questions for Patagonia Fishing:
- While we understand that Patagonia Fishing may not be aware of the above issues, we wanted to ask if you have any comment to make in response to the information contained in this letter?
- We are not indicating explicitly or implicitly that flagging-in is illegal, we are just taking a look at the issue of flagging-in globally. Can you please verify that Patagonia Fishing operates fishing vessels which are flagged to Argentina and are beneficially owned by Shandong Bodelong Group?
Please let us know your responses to the above questions by close of business on July 10, 2024, noting that all interactions remain on record."