Photo: courtesy Diario Concepción

Subpesca prepares Plan B to face motion to suppress hake trawling

CHILE
Tuesday, June 15, 2021, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

• Undersecretariat of Fisheries prepares strategy in defense of employment and technical factors

• Industrial fishermen from Biobío are on alert for the end of trawling project process
  

Next Wednesday, in the Fisheries Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, the bill "Hake II" originated on a motion by deputies Rojas, Díaz, Brito and Sepúlveda, who re-entered the proposal 24 hours after it was rejected, will be debated. some days ago. Seeks to ban trawling of common hake.

The Undersecretariat of Fisheries is invited to the session, being its head, Alicia Gallardo, the person who gave a ray of hope to the industrial fishermen of the Biobío Region, in a virtual meeting, at the beginning of the month.

On the occasion, from Talcahuano, representing the formal workers dependent on industrial fishing, were Ricardo Flores, president of the Drag Crew; Hugo Roa, president of the Cerco Crew; Eric Riffo, President of the Motorists; Oscar Alvear and Juan Carlos González, secretary and president of the Captains.

The central theme was the project to ban trawling on hake; which represents unemployment for men with formal work and an average age of 50 years, who in the current pandemic conditions and having worked all their lives on board, will not have the possibility of reintegrating into work, the leaders warned. They recalled that the same happened with the Giant Squid Law, in which parliamentarians decided that it should be captured only with squid, and no one took charge of the unemployed and the resource that the country lost.

"They are fanciful, undemocratic projects (because they did not like what the Parliament agreed, so they present it again), how is it possible that parliamentarians who have no idea of anything in fishing want to make us disappear (...)" said Ricardo Flores, remembering that with the Giant Squid Law there was a commitment to review how it worked and two years after the change, nothing has been done.

Recognize quality of fishermen

Oscar Alvear stated that a point to consider in all the disorders and damages that laws such as the one in this project cause in industrial fishermen is that they are not considered with rights in the legislation: "they only burden us with duties, but if we had recognized rights "The parliamentarians could not take away our sources of employment, it is a human right of all workers in the country. We demand dignity and human rights. "

Hugo Roa criticized that the embarked workers have been demonized by the political classes "believing that we are shareholders, but we are workers, that we have been contributing to the family and the country for decades and we are very concerned about this project, we want to know what the government will do. In the past, in La Moneda, they told us that the Giant Squid Law, as it was unconstitutional, would be vetoed or they would take it to the TC and nothing happened. We are disappointed. "

Reasonable limit

The leaders told the undersecretary that on the issue of Hake/Trawling, reasonable limits were already exceeded regarding the illegal fishing of this resource; that Chile is fishing 3 or 4 times the quota through crime at sea and industrial fishermen who work in compliance with all national and international rules are going to be the ones to get out of the activity.

Juan Carlos González described the drag project as irresponsible, by parliamentarians who do not really know what the reality of the sector is. He pointed out, for example, that the advances made in the law and in the drag technique have been presented to the parliamentarians, in different commissions, but they do not take anything into account, neither what comes from the academy or the technical area .

He also insisted on the need to be recognized as fishermen: "We are people who for more than 60 years have maintained and raised this activity that has paid good dividends to the country."

Value chain

The undersecretary, Alicia Gallardo, recognized and validated the role of industrial fishermen in the Fishing Value Chain and that they are important actors to consider in the law.

The undersecretary reported that: "in our next sustainability project we are going to incorporate them as relevant actors when making decisions on the sustainability of resources because when the Giant Squid was seen nobody emphasized, or it was not in the law, that there are actors that have the same weight as an artisanal or industrial shipowner, which are you. "

The undersecretary added that in the discussion that is taking place in the Common Hake, the issue of (industrial) crew members is being addressed as an impact factor. (...)

Regarding the project to prohibit hake trawling, the undersecretary indicated that: "although it is the same one presented two years ago, we are going to postulate that today we have different antecedents, that the Management Committee has advanced in the Management Plan and there is We did not have a history of Illegal Fishing before and, therefore, we are going to insist on working together with the Senate bill in order to provide the necessary technical background to abort this project, which is clearly a project that threatens economic sustainability. and social, it also threatens hake, because if there is going to be elimination of trawling, the Management Committee remains half and all its advances will be frozen".

Image: Subpesca

We are going to have to restructure a Management Plan, which was made with the participation of the Industry and if it leaves the Management Committee, we no longer have an important part, the discard - for example - will no longer be available because there is no industry. Regarding the whole issue of modifying the trawl mesh, it will not be available either, so clearly there we will have to move to the focus of importance, which is the fight against illegal fishing, which will probably be the most important element. to work and that will delay the recovery of hake much longer, she added.

And he closed by stating that they believe that they are passing a level of no return where the responsibility of Subpesca is clear for this to communicate to the parliamentarians and be very clear that our guiding principle is to recover the hake, all the resources that are in a state of overexploitation or collapse and for this we need a meeting of all the actors and changing a fishing gear is an element that one has to evaluate with scientific information (...) but a project has to be done that monitors and makes a decision to the light of the results ".

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