While all characters and incidents described in this novel are fictitious, a chase of a Uruguayan-flagged longliner by an unarmed Australian patrol vessel did occur in 2003. The Uruguayan vessel suspected of illegally fishing Patagonian toothfish in the waters around Australia’s Heard Island was the Viarsa 1. The Australian civil patrol vessel was the Southern Supporter. The chase that ensued was the longest in maritime history, covering almost four thousand nautical miles. The vessels encountered ten-metre waves, eighty-knot winds and wind-chill temperatures as low as minus twenty degrees Celsius.
Unlike the fictional Pescador, the Viarsa 1 did not display its flag state at the time of arrest. It did, however, respond to radio requests from the Southern Supporter to identify itself. Believing the Viarsa 1 to be in breach of the Fisheries Management Act 1991, the fisheries officer on board the Southern Supporter ordered the Viarsa 1 to proceed to Fremantle. When that order was not observed, the Southern Supporter initiated the ‘hot pursuit’. Fifteen days into the pursuit, the crew of the Viarsa 1 raised the Uruguayan flag, advising that they had been arrested by Uruguayan authorities ordered home to Montevideo to be investigated by their flag state. The mid-Atlantic boarding on 28 August 2003 was assisted by a South African icebreaker deployed from Marion Island, and a UK patrol vessel dispatched from the Falkland Islands. The Viarsa 1 was then escorted back to Fremantle, where Western Australia’s Department of Fisheries invited tenders for the catch of Patagonian toothfish.
Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) records provided to the Australian Government by the Uruguayan Government for the week leading up to the first sighting show the vessel being three thousand nautical miles from its alleged location.
The Viarsa 1’s Uruguayan master and four senior crew members were held in a Fremantle merchant seamen’s hostel for two years awaiting the outcome of legal hearings. In November 2005, a Perth District Court jury acquitted the men, from Uruguay, Spain and Chile, on all counts. The Viarsa 1 has since been wrecked in India.
Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported that the Uruguayan master would retire from fishing to be with his family once he returned home.
Australia is now patrolling the Southern Ocean with a vessel armed with twin deck-mounted machine guns. The vessel will also carry an armed Customs boarding party. It is encouraging the implementation of a catch-documentation scheme to make it more difficult to sell illegal, unreported or unregulated catches.
A Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators (COLTO) was formed in 2003, appealing for any information on toothfish pirates. It has received many calls.