photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

INIDEP analyzed squid catches from the spring spawning stock (SSS)

ARGENTINA
Friday, July 30, 2021, 18:00 (GMT + 9)

The Cephalopod Fisheries area analyzed catches and commercial yields of this stock between 2010 and 2021, the year in which 4,592 tonnes were caught between May and June, the highest figure of the period.

INIDEP Cephalopod Fishery Researchers analyzed the catches and commercial yields of the spring spawning stock of Argentine squid in the period 2010-2021. The work of Marcela Ivanovic and Gabriel Rossi was summarized in Technical Report Nº44.

Squid is a species that shows a high tendency to form subpopulations or stocks adapted to different environmental conditions. On the structure of sizes, maturity stages, areas and spawning times, the researchers identified 4 stocks: Summer Spawning, Sudpatagónico, North Patagonian Bonaerense and Spring Spawning.

"Of the four, the 'SSS' is the smallest in terms of population volume and therefore the one that contributed the least to the commercial catches of the species," the researchers pointed out.

In a typical year, it usually appears in the catches made by the fleet on the Buenos Aires-North Patagonian intermediate platform from July with sizes of around 20 centimeters long of mantle and 190 grams of weight, specify the authors of the Technical Report.

Winter: July-Sept (left) and Spring: Oct-Dec (right)

Catches and yields are usually low. During the spring, the adult specimens appear as bycatch of the trawl fleet, although in very low proportions. The only exception occurred in 2010 when the jigging fleet recorded high catches of this stock between July and September that reached almost 50 thousand tons.

Summer: Jan-March (left) and Autumn: Oct-Dec (right)

The report analyzed the evolution and population structure of the catches during the seasons of the last decade, in particular for the months of May and June in order to verify if there was any record of a similar situation in the past.

Data on the catch, effort and population structure of the Argentine squid caught by the jigging fleet from May 2010-2021 were analyzed. “After a first analysis, it was found that the only seasons that presented a similar pattern to 2021 were those of 2016 and 2017, which is why the results refer to these three seasons, to which is added that of 2010 because it was the only year with a record catch ”, the document emphasizes.

In the 2021 season, it was observed that the SDP began to appear in the catches of the jigging fleet from mid-May with unusually high yields, between 10 and 21 tonnes per day and immature small-sized squid.

This year 4,591 tonnes of the SSS were caught in May-June, doubling the catch corresponding to the same period of 2016 and well above the values ​​of 2017 and 2010. Fishing lasted until June 11, the date on which the Federal Council Pesquero ordered the closing of the season to protect the stock.

When the total annual catches are compared, it is observed that 2021 exceeded the 2016 season by 7% but both years represented 9% of the squid caught in 2010.

The 2016 and 2017 seasons presented a SSS catch pattern similar to that of the current season but with volumes much lower than 4,591 tonnes between May and June. In the rest of the years analyzed, the catches of this stock were minimal.

Investigators clarified that there were no observers aboard the eleven jigger vessels that operated last June. In order to know the size of the captured squid, a production analysis was drawn up. 92% of the processed squid corresponded to the smaller size categories E-2S and E-3S, while 6% to the E-S category.

Fuente: Revista Puerto (only available in Spanish)

[email protected]
www.seafood.media

Print