Photo: courtesy Revista puerto

Today the total or partial closure of the shrimp season is defined

ARGENTINA
Friday, September 24, 2021, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

The low yields that caused the overcoming of the trawl time limit to find a few tons and the increase in the bycatch, imposed the imminent closure within the closure. Today will be the last day of dispatch to the area and it will be defined whether the north is open or not.

The Undersecretary of Fisheries informed the companies that until 11.59pm today the dispatch of vessels to the shrimp fishery will be allowed to fish within the hake ban in national waters. The decision must be ratified by the Federal Fisheries Council and it will be defined whether the northern sector, outside the closure, will remain enabled or will be closed to preserve the shrimp and hake that begin their reproductive period. On the other hand, it was decided to close the sector known as El Rincón, due to the considerable increase in incidental fishing for both hake and magrú.

As the minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Fisheries Council were not published, it was not possible to know what the state of the shrimp fishery was fifteen days ago, since the reports presented by INIDEP were not made known. But the decisions that were made this week seem to indicate that the authorities had already been notified, leaving the Undersecretary of Fisheries with the power to determine the closure.

The decision was made last Tuesday, when the fleet was informed that shrimp fishing could be dispatched within the hake ban, until today, Thursday, September 23. The closure is subject to ratification by the Federal Fisheries Council, something that is considered ruled out, because even the vast majority of the fleet itself has abandoned the fishing zone. Only 51 ships remain in operation.

The crews confirmed that they were making sets of more than two hours to obtain only 50 boxes of shrimp in one set and three times more of the accompanying fauna, which could be flora and fauna of the seabed, small prawn or in reproductive state, hubbsi hake and in the last week, also, significant volumes of magrú in the El Rincón area.

Precisely, given the alert launched by INIDEP regarding the increase in bycatch, the Fisheries Directorate issued a note prohibiting the capture of shrimp in the area defined between the parallels of 39 and 41º on the south coast of the province of Buenos Aires, at starting at zero hour yesterday, September 22.

The area remains open for the capture of other species, such as the mackerel. The problem with the double-rigged trawlers of less than 33 meters that operated in the area would be the discarding of the companion species. But the lack of inspectors or control systems on board, makes their verification impossible. Still, the biological data seems to have been strong enough to determine, at least, the closure.

Today the Federal Fisheries Council meets in the city of Mar del Plata and based on the information provided by INIDEP regarding the operation of ships in the northern sector, outside the closed season, it will be decided whether to continue operating at the same time double-rigged trawlers or if they will have to return to port definitively, once this last tide ends.

The report to determine if the sector will remain open is also expected for today or tomorrow, since the head of the Shrimp Program, Paula Moriondo Danovaro, is returning from the campaign carried out in the south of the province of Buenos Aires, El Rincón and the Golfo San Matías and must analyze the data of observers in that sector. If the information is not available, the closure decision will again be in the hands of the Undersecretary of Fisheries.

The counselors will be waiting at the foot of the dock for the researcher, together with the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Julián Domínguez, since she will get off the research vessel Mar Argentino, which will have made her first cruise. In addition to a timely political postcard, it will be an excellent opportunity for the highest authorities to thank the team's hard work and apologize for the very poor salaries that INIDEP researchers charge. 

Source: Revista Puerto (article available only in spanish)

Related news:

• Some notes on the shrimp season

• The performance of the shrimp calls for the end of the season

• Countdown to the end of the shrimp season

• In search of the shrimp route in the north

• 'There is a veiled intention to discredit the fresh shrimp'

• Management plan and fines for offenders in the shrimp fishery

• Management proposals for the argentinean shrimp fishery

• They follow the shrimp in subareas 4 and 5

• Voracity and bad practices endanger the future of the shrimp

• More than 80 thousand tons of shrimp unloaded in ports of the province of Chubut

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