The military of Argentina is “ramping up efforts” to combat massive Chinese fishing operations that are depleting the waters of the squid which Argentine fishermen and the Argentine economy depend on. But in addition to confirming the scope of the problem, what will this combating consist of?
An Argentine surveillance mission found “a total of 380 fishing vessels just outside Argentina’s EEZ, many of which sailed from Asia to richer waters” (“Why Argentina’s military is deploying to surveil hundreds of Chinese fishing boats off its coast,” CNN, March 10, 2025).
The footage, shared by the Argentine military in late February, shows the overwhelming scale of a flotilla near a marine boundary which separates the country’s more restrictive exclusive economic zone from less-regulated international waters.
This area, about 200 nautical miles off the coast of southern Argentina, is notorious for illegal and unregulated fishing—often carried out by Chinese vessels, according to the Argentine Navy.
Most of these ships hunt for squid, which are abundant along the Argentine coast and a vital food source in the marine ecosystem.
The Argentine military is now ramping up efforts to combat these fishing operations in a region experts warn is on the brink of environmental collapse.
That the Chinese fishing fleet was detected “just outside” Argentina’s exclusive economic zone doesn’t mean much. Organisms within the exclusive economic zone would also be affected by China’s scrambling to scoop up all the squid. As Milko Schvartzman, an expert in illicit fishing, puts it, “a fish doesn’t understand” the borderlines.
“For the species, for the ecosystem, it doesn’t matter if the vessel is one mile farther or closer…the impact is the same.”
Another reason that being nominally outside the EEZ often doesn’t mean much is that the boundaries of the EEZ often don’t mean much to Chinese vessels. Around the world, these ships wander into the exclusive economic zones of other countries whenever convenient to do so, shutting off beacons that would help others track their whereabouts.
Global despoliation
The Chinese Communist Party plunders internationally on the assumption that its might makes right. Sometimes it pretends to respect national boundaries and rights; other times, openly flouts them.
Other nations are guilty of the same fishing practices in foreign waters, but not on the scale of China. Reviewing data assembled by Global Fishing Watch, CNN counted some 500 instances of fishing vessels turning off location beacons over the past year; 92% of these instances “involved Chinese-flagged ships.”
Operators turn off the beacon to hide activity, including the activity of floating across the border of an exclusive economic zone.
“Illicit fishing has plagued costal Argentina for decades, experts say, with the Argentine Navy saying that Chinese vessels are frequent violators of the exclusive economic zone….
“Historical ship tracking data corroborates the pattern and reveals these abundant waters off Argentina’s coast as a hotspot for lapsed vessel beacons.”
It’s happening; confirmed. Now what?
In March 2024, VOA News reported that “the U.S. Coast Guard and Argentine Navy will begin conducting joint exercises aimed at combating illegal Chinese fishing in the Atlantic Ocean…. Since 1986, Argentine authorities have seized 80 foreign-flagged boats fishing in their waters, including sinking Chinese and Taiwanese ships.”
The March 2025 CNN article does not indicate what if any illegal fishing near Argentina has been curtailed more recently.
