Seizure of 10 Chinese Fishing Vessels in Iranian Waters

Two days after the announcement of the seizure of "10 fishing vessels" from China by Iran, the head of the Fisheries Department of Sistan and Baluchestan province stated that the reason for their seizure was "unauthorized entry into Iranian territorial waters." While the governor of Sistan and Baluchestan reported on Friday the seizure of Chinese vessels with 70 to 80 crew members and their transfer to Chabahar port in Iran (near the borders of Pakistan), Mohsen Ali Golshani, the head of the Fisheries Department of this province, announced on Sunday, August 11, in an interview with IRNA news agency that "the reason for the seizure of these fishing vessels is not due to 'trawling,' but rather unauthorized entry and stopping within the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran." The "trawl" method is a type of high-volume fishing where a large fishing net is dragged by a vessel. Mokhtar Akhundi, the director general of the Fishing Affairs Office of Iran's Fisheries Organization, also stated on Saturday in an interview with Tasnim news agency that "the 10 vessels that intended to catch lanternfish in Iran were seized due to approaching the Iranian coast." Lanternfish are small fish that live in the depths of the sea and are mainly used for fish meal production. According to Mr. Golshani, "the largest reserve of one million tons of lanternfish is located at the maritime border between Iran and Oman, in the areas of Jask and Chabahar, which presents one of the largest fishing opportunities and also international cooperation with foreign companies, conducted under strict supervision and adherence to domestic laws." He stated that "trawling in Iran is subject to specific regulations, the first step of which is obtaining official permits from the Iranian Fisheries Organization, and thereafter fishing must be conducted outside the 25-mile limit of the Oman Sea shores." Chinese officials have not yet commented on this matter. According to Golshani, after extensive investigations, it has been determined that these vessels were operating under a contract for an Iranian company to catch fish, but apparently, the Iranian company did not complete the administrative procedures in a timely manner, leading to this issue. Trawling in Iran's territorial waters within 25 miles of the coast is prohibited for fishermen, but according to Iranian sources, these vessels were stopped within five miles of the Iranian coast near Chabahar for a week, during which, according to official reports, no fishing was conducted in the area. Ali Asghar Mojahidi, the deputy for fishing and fishing ports of the Fisheries Organization, announced in June of this year that the annual catch of lanternfish in the Oman Sea is between 300,000 to 400,000 tons, which is one of the important programs of the Fisheries Organization in the fishing sector. He stated that studies show that the reserves of lanternfish at a depth of 200 meters in the Oman Sea range between one to four million tons.