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Witness repelled from offshore exploration zone

The 'Witness' of Greenpeace entered the area in which the Equinor company is carrying out offshore exploration and was repelled by the Naval Prefecture, days after the Supreme Court rejected the organizations' proposals to put a stop to the work, whom they denounce for possible environmental damage. The events occurred on Oct 20, 2023. The vessel tried to approach the ship that is carrying out seismic studies, and after the intervention of the Prefecture it was forced to return to the port of Piriápolis. The NGO assured that the ship was carrying out a mission that had the objective of documenting the biodiversity of the Argentine Sea, but that at no time was the exclusion zone established for the exploration work carried out by the company Equinor. The vessel hired by Equinor to carry out the exploration tasks has a restricted delimited area of 6.5 kilometers on the port and starboard sides; 6.5 kilometers forward and 14.5 kilometers aft. This is a mobile area that accompanies the navigation of the vessel while it carries out the survey. Greenpeace denied that the intentions were to approach the ship, or to generate any type of propaganda movement against the work being carried out in the Argentine Sea. However, the NGO has been leading the opposition to the exploratory work, encouraged by the provincial government. Greenpeace was waiting for a proposal that had already covered the entire judicial map and had to be resolved by the Supreme Court, which it did a week later, in favour of the continuity of the exploration.