Photo: courtesy Revista puerto

Management proposals for the argentinean shrimp fishery

ARGENTINA
Wednesday, August 25, 2021, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

Management alternatives are being studied in the business sector, which will be presented to the authorities in order to help prevent the overexploitation of the resource and the deterioration of a millionaire business that generates thousands of registered jobs and foreign currency for Argentina.

About twenty companies are testing management proposals to contribute with the authorities in the generation of measures to limit Olympic fishing and improve the quality conditions of the wild and natural shrimp that are being exported. It does not refer to existing and unfulfilled ones such as trawling time and between sets, or fishing hours. These are proposals to limit the number of boats, the catch capacity, the hold and access to the resource.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

The definition of a single criterion for reformulations and the determination of quotas occupies the first place. The task is not easy: as of 2013, vessels began to be allowed to enter the fishery through the reformulation of permits. At first, the antecedent of shrimp capture was an unavoidable condition, but over time it degenerated and 2021 was reached with dozens of reformulations that transformed a variety of coastal, pelagic species and even squid into a shrimp capture authorization.

Going back to the shrimp catch history is the alternative proposed by a group of companies, but at this point and with more than 200 boats authorized to fish shrimp, it will surely have to be debated in depth if the fishery can resist the entry of more fishing vessels. The alarms about the increase in fishing effort that have occurred since INIDEP would seem to indicate that the era of reformulations has ended and probably, it will even be necessary to review the quota of the authorizations granted and the legality of the permits.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

For the weetfish vessels they propose to return to the boxes with 17 kilos, to which the proportion of ice must be determined to reverse the doubling of the cellar and loss of quality that was generated with the implementation of boxes of the same weight, but with a possibility much greater stowage. It is also proposed to limit the number of boxes and establish a maximum return to port period of 96 hours.

For the freezing vessels, it is proposed not to fish in provincial waters, and some have even proposed closing the entry to avoid saturating the market and establishing a hold capacity cap of 2,000 tons for new vessels that enter in replacement of previous reformulations.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

Maintaining the protection measures on the AIER and not allowing the increase in the fishing effort on the city of Rawson shrimp with the incorporation of vessels from Buenos Aires, is part of the drafts that companies with weetfish and freezer vessels test and approach the authorities.

From various sectors they point out that among the companies with weetfish vessels, mostly from Mar del Plata, who for the most part do not process their catches, there is a certain awareness of the negative impact that the Olympic fishing of the resource is generating. Therefore, it is estimated that there would be no resistance in the implementation of new ordering parameters.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

Control and surveillance will play an important role. The mechanisms to be able to comply with a regulation that already exists and is violated should be rethought by virtue of the technological tools and available human resources, possibly involving other State control bodies. The administration of the resource, so careful from the biological point of view, had its negative side in the relaxation of controls and the multiplication of fishing effort that requires urgent measures.

The INIDEP researchers are doing an impeccable job. Not only do they follow the resource, giving always accurate diagnoses, despite the unpredictability of the species, but they are also capable of generating alerts to avoid a disaster in the middle of the season. But in their hands is only to show what happens, the rest is borne by those who fish and the authorities.

It is important to remember that the immense work carried out by INIDEP researchers, both in this fishery and in all those in the Argentine Sea, do so while receiving miserable wages, close to the poverty line.

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