A total 98 percent of the Chilean Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) will be protected from bottom trawling following an announcement by authorities from the Chile’s Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca) and NGO Oceana Chile of a freeze of the country's fishing footprint.
Pablo Berazaluce, head of Supesca, and Liesbeth van der Meer, executive officer at Oceana, said the measure was put in place to protect hake and demersal crustacean fisheries.
