Unsustainable fishing intensifies in Argentine waters
Date: 28-Jan-00
Country: ARGENTINA
While the Argentine government considers extending strict quotas on hake
aimed at rebuilding the shrunken stock of that cod-like fish beyond a
three-month period, fishermen warned the problem is simply being shifted
to another species.
"The hake crisis is putting more pressure on other species and creating
problems where you have deep-sea vessels fishing in coastal waters,"
said Horacio Angriman of the Argentine Overseas Captains and Merchant
Marine Centre.
Over-fished hake makes up about half of Argentina's $1 billion a year
fish export industry, followed by squid, mackerel, crayfish, salmon and
other species. The main export markets are Spain, Japan, Brazil, Italy
and the United States.
Argentina's squid catch begins Tuesday and a concession decreed by the
previous government last November allowing more than 50 foreign vessels
into territorial waters will put the heat on that species as well,
Angriman said.
Posters went up throughout Buenos Aires last week featuring a factory
ship stamped in red with the caption "Thieves!" to coincide with
protests by seven fishermen's unions against the decree and the
industry's plight.
While none of Argentina's commercially fished species are in danger of
extinction, the country's fishery is not sustainable at current levels
according to marine biologists, environmentalists and industry officials
said.
Still, that's better than the state of the global fishery, where 34
percent of all fish species are in danger of vanishing forever,
according to the "State of the World 2000" report by Washington-based
WorldWatch Institute.
"If we only enforced our own rules we wouldn't be having these
problems," Federal Fishing Council President Oscar Fortunato said.
That would mean regular surveillance flights by both the Coast Guard and
Air Force along Argentina's 3,080 mile (4,990 km) coastline. Argentina's
fishing fleet satellite surveillance system, Monpesat, came back online
this week after lack of funds shut it down at the start of October.
Even then, some ships defied Argentina's fishing exclusion zone south of
the 48th parallel like the "Coalsa Segundo" which has been confined to
its dock in Puerto Deseado some 960 miles (1,550 km) southeast of Buenos
Aires after it covered up its geopositioning satellite antenna,
Greenpeace Argentina said.
"This is part of Argentina's problem: over-fishing and European Union
subsidies," Greenpeace Argentina spokesman Juan Carlos Villalonga said.
Argentina banned hake fishing last year to salvage the South Atlantic
cod-like fish stock, which has been decimated by overfishing after a
1994 accord between Argentina and the European Union expired in March,
1999. The agreement allowed EU fishermen to catch hake, squid and cod in
line with quotas.
EU subsidies to the 29 vessels, mostly large freezer ships, trawling
Argentine waters during the last agreement averaged $540,000 per vessel
each year, or 40 times greater than those offered to ships fishing in
European waters.
Until the ban, the hake catch had doubled to 700,000 tonnes from roughly
350,000 tonnes in 1992. While the total hake catch declined to 300,300
tonnes in 1999 it was still far above last year's 190,000 tonne quota
before the ban was imposed.
Future hake quotas hinge on a study currently underway to determine how
many of the cod-like species are still swimming in Argentine waters,
said Angriman of the Argentine Overseas Captains and Merchant Marine
Centre.
