The members of the Federal Fisheries Council received the proposal from the Ministry of the Environment to create a new Marine Protected Area called 'Frente Valdés'. It is mostly within the Permanent Hake Ban and affects subarea 3 for shrimp, but it will not disturb the development of the activity, since bottom trawling has been prohibited in that area since 2018.

 

The proposed new MPA has an area of ​​12,000 square kilometers and is delimited by the parallels of 42º and 43º South and the meridians of 63º 44' and 62º West, being located entirely outside the 12 nautical miles. This delimitation would not affect the fishing activity, at least as far as shrimp and trawling are concerned, because it is a closed area for four years.

 

 

An area larger than the demarcated area was already protected by Resolution 7 of 2018, which established the prohibition of commercial bottom trawling operations directed at the shrimp species east of the limit of the jurisdictional waters of the Province of Río Negro, up to the 62° West longitude meridian, between the 41° and 43° South latitude parallels.

 

“The existence of fishing bans for hake and shrimp trawling in a large part of the sector between the 42° and 43° parallels and the scarce historical and current development of fisheries suggests that anthropic degradation is low, the proposed area representing an area with a high degree of naturalness due to the absence or low level of anthropogenic degradation, a fundamental quality to take into account when creating an AMP”, indicates the document presented by Environment.

 

The Valdés Peninsula Front (FPV) area "presents unique characteristics, given by its morphology and bathymetry that place it within the regions of greatest dissipation of tidal energy in the world oceans." In spring and summer, in addition, a frontal system is generated that predisposes the existence of a highly productive ecosystem, habitat of numerous species, is indicated in the justification of the MPA project.

 

In FPV, microalgal blooms develop during the summer that are transmitted throughout the food web, intensifying secondary production. The biomass and diversity of phytoplankton and zooplankton is relevant and typical of the frontal system. Two benthic communities with their own characteristics are developed here, which make up a center of high biodiversity for the Argentine Platform, according to Environment based on the information collected by INIDEP research and the ocean campaign carried out together.

 

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"The area is used by around 107 species of fish (so far it is known that 9 reproduce in the sector), 30 species of seabirds and 38 species of marine mammals", they point out and add that "it is of fundamental relevance for the reproduction and breeding of the southern stock of anchovy, a key species in the food web, and other fish species that identify the FPV as an area of ​​high relevance for feeding seabirds, especially for a species of great tourist importance, the penguin of Magellan, but also the southern giant petrel and the black-browed albatross."

 

In the area to be protected, 17 regionally threatened species have been identified. Among the fish, chondrichthyans (rays and sharks) and soles stand out; between petrels and albatross birds. Among the marine mammals, the bottlenose dolphin uses the area to feed.

 

From the Ministry of the Environment they point out that in addition to providing protection to the systems described and to the threatened species, the percentage of protected areas would be increased in compliance with international agreements, it would contribute to the mitigation of climate change, the tourist activity would benefit and it would be in value the interdisciplinary scientific work "carried out for more than four decades", concludes the draft document that the Environment representative in the Federal Fisheries Council presented last week.

 

Unlike what happens with the Blue Hole AMP Bill, which already has half sanction in Deputies, this proposal would enjoy the scientific support that it lacks regarding the species to be protected, in addition to being put to the consideration of the activities involved before to be elevated to parliamentary discussion, something that the bill of deputies Graciela Camaño and Máximo Kirchner also lacks.