Antarctic Endeavour: Pesca Chile owns one fishing vessel, the Antarctic Endeavour, according to Chile’s Fisheries Service, Sernapesca.² On March 23, 2023, Sea Shepherd crew reportedly witnessed the Antarctic Endeavour catching krill “very close to a group of fin whales.” This practice, while not formally banned, is discouraged due to three juvenile humpback whales that were killed in separate instances in 2020 and 2021. The captain of the Sea Shepherd’s ship reported that the Antarctic Endeavour “made no effort to change their course and even looked as if they had deliberately headed towards the group of whales, knowing that where there are whales there are krill.”³ In January 2024, the Antarctic Endeavour caught a humpback whale in a net intended to catch krill. The crew eventually cut the whale free from the net and released it into the ocean, but it “displayed signs of lethargy and bleeding around its tail,”⁴ and scientists from the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources concluded that “the capture was considered a mortality event…because the released whale’s injuries were likely to prove fatal.”⁵

Cabo de Hornos: On October 17, 2024, artisanal fishers from Puerto Chacabuco filed a lawsuit following a diesel spill that occurred earlier that year. Pesca Chile’s factory ship, Cabo de Hornos, was docked at the port when it reportedly spilled over 1,000 liters of diesel fuel into the waters of Puerto Chacabuco Bay. The complaint was submitted by over 300 local fishers who expressed deep concern about the spill’s impact on their livelihoods, as the forced halt of fishing activities left their families in a vulnerable situation. They demanded compensation of 10 million Chilean pesos, approximately $10,474, per person for loss of income and an additional 10 million Chilean pesos for personal damages. The fishers’representative, Torres, called for urgent action from authorities, emphasizing the need for both legal accountability and comprehensive reparations for the harm caused, according to reports by Mundo Acuicola and the Business and Human Rights Resource Center.⁶

Pesca Chile did not respond to a request for comment.⁷