Three-week chase ends in trawler capture

Australian customs officials and armed South African police seized a Uruguayan trawler suspected of poaching endangered fish today, ending a three-week chase through icy Antarctic waters.

The trawler’s crew – including a Uruguayan government official – is accused of illegally catching Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass, a delicacy known as “white gold” because of the quality and price of its flaky flesh.

The 40 crew members were arrested in the South Atlantic ocean, 2,300 miles south west of Cape Town, when armed South African police officers hired by Australia boarded the trawler, Viarsa.

Boat records showed it was carrying 85 metric tons of illegally-caught Patagonian toothfish worth €925,000.