Although Argentina has not commented on the matter, as usual, the RRS Sir David Attenborough's voyage through national waters is causing concern . This is mainly due to the lack of restrictions on its passage, and the fact that it flies the flag of the Malvina Islands Overseas Territory, whose existence Argentina ignores and has declared illegal.
The recent incident follows what happened last January . There, the Tierra del Fuego government reported the presence of the same vessel, flying the same flag, off the Argentine coast. At the time, the RRS Sir David Attenborough sailed through the Le Maire Strait, which separates Tierra del Fuego from the Staten Island, making this journey while departing the Malvinas Islands for the British Antarctic base at Rothera .
The Argentine government's position was widely criticized, as it defended its actions by stating that the vessel was transiting through territorial waters under the guise of innocent passage. "Given that innocent passage requires uninterrupted navigation, the vessel cannot be intercepted nor its transit impeded," they emphasized at the time.
This reality was repeated on other occasions, specifically in January 2023, 2024 and 2025. The British oceanographic vessel's journey consisted of sailing from its base in Puerto Argentino in the Malvina Islands to Punta Arenas, Chile, through the Strait of Magellan, and returning by the same route.
Last Sunday, the ship also stopped in Punta Arenas, Chile, during Naval and Maritime Heritage Day celebrations at Muelle Prat. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey and designed for scientific research in the Arctic and Antarctic, the 129-meter-long vessel, with a range of 19,000 nautical miles, attracted attention during the festivities.
Punta Arenas has also hosted illegally flagged British aircraft on other occasions. On February 13 of this year, for example, a Royal Air Force (RAF) Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft, registered ZM421, landed in Punta Arenas.
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