Photo by Revista Puerto
Without squid, landings in the city of Mar del Plata fell 20 percent
ARGENTINA
Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 06:00 (GMT + 9)
In the first two months of the year, the catches in the local port of Mar del Plata fell by 13 thousand tons in relation to the same period of 2020. The tests for the dockers of the frozen branch lowered the level of positivity in recent weeks.
With the squid from the southern management unit discharged mainly in the Argentine cities of Puerto Deseado and Madryn, Mar del Plata feels the impact with a decrease in the discharges that were registered in the first two months of the year.
Between January and February, according to the official statistics released by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries, 41,325 tons were received at the local port. In the same period of 2020, discharges had reached 54,199 tons.
Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto
The squid occupies one of the main species that make up these discharges. Illex accounted for 16,833 tonnes and is barely surpassed by hubbsi hake in the stock south of 41 ° S. But of the 50 thousand tons of squid that have been declared until March 3, 21 thousand were received by Puerto Deseado.
The official statistic marks a singularity: that 10,000 tons of squid were unloaded in "other ports" that are not the main maritime terminals.
The abundance of squid in 2020 allowed Mar del Plata to exceed 404 thousand tons and had an increase of 13 percent in relation to total landings compared to 2019, something that the rest of the seaports could not show.
Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto
In the last week, Xin Shi Ji 28, one of the jiggers of the Fénix company, was unloaded in Mar del Plata. The stevedores of Pequeña Marina, one of the eight companies that operates on the frozen, participated in the maneuver, and that previously had to swab all the workers.
Pequeña Marina employs longshoremen from the recruitment center that groups eventual longshoremen. The rest of the stevedores are summoned to work by the seven cooperatives that work in the freezing branch. Every Monday they are tested to clear the possibility that someone enters the dock with symptoms compatible with the coronavirus.
Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto
"Fortunately, the level of positivity has dropped a lot," says Marcelo Navarro, the director of Proyecto Salud, the company that provides emergency medical services in the jurisdiction of the Port Consortium.
"The weekly average of tests is about 350 stevedores and there are between 10 and 15 positives," said the specialist. “In recent weeks the level of positivity has dropped. The highest we had was at the beginning, 10 percent" he said.
The evaluation performed on stevedores is a nasopharyngeal swab, known as a rapid test or Abbott method. The cost of testing is borne by the eight stevedoring companies that operate in the freezer, which contribute to a common well to test potential stevedores from the hiring center.
Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto
"On Mondays, eventual stevedores and partners are tested in the preview of the unloadings so that the attention center is not saturated and many are waiting for the result," says the SUPA leader.
The requirement to enter the dock to work is to present the negative test. "It gives us all peace of mind to know that whoever enters the dock to integrate an unloading hand is healthy and will not infect his companions," González stressed.
Author: Roberto Garrone / Revista Puerto (article available only in Spanish)
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