Scientific reports of overfishing led to the suspension of hake season in the south of Patagonia and banned squid operations. The government of Argentina has decided to limit the catches of both species following an official audit of the industry. INIDEP and the Federal Fisheries Council accused of inefficient and lack of proper controls.
The Federal Fisheries Council banned hake fishing for thirty days and the previous week advanced three months the closure of the squid season. Both decisions follow “evidence of the existence of a diminished biomass of the resource” for hake and in the case of squid a ‘consensus’ from the companies involved in the fishery to call it a day. But industry source said that the reason behind the decision is the ‘illegal’ competition from Chinese and Korean fleets licensed by the Falklands/Malvinas government that ‘invade’ Argentine jurisdiction.
According to INIDEP the squid biomass is down but the national Auditing office argues that INIDEP lacks the sufficient funds to comply with its responsibilities which are to monitor the evolution of fishery resources and to help with conservation.
