Portuguese authorities have seized a Spanish-flagged tuna vessel belonging to the San Ginés Guild, in Lanzarote, for allegedly fishing in prohibited waters, as confirmed this Tuesday by the Government of the Canary Islands.
This was reported by the Executive's spokesperson, Martín Marrero, after the meeting of the Governing Council in which the head of Agriculture communicated this fact.
Apparently, and according to initial data, the tuna vessel was in waters of the Azores, between 100 and 200 miles from the coast, which a priori leads the Canarian Government to assume that no illegality was being committed, as this delimitation is the mandatory one for ships with a community flag.
"If this is the case," Marrero declared, "there would be no reason for the seizure to occur, because in this maritime strip, ships with a community flag are allowed to fish, and it is those with a non-community flag that have to fish outside these lines."
At the moment, we are waiting for more data, so the Government is taking actions in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify the situation and then achieve the release of the crew.
The ship, called 'Zeruko Erregiña', is 33 meters long and 7.4 meters wide, and apparently had 11 crew members.
ACN Press
