After a meeting with fisheries officials from Patagonian provinces Argentine Fisheries Director Norberto Yauhar suspended the initiative to limit common hake (Merluccius hubbsi) fishing in waters of San Jorge gulf. Originally this initiative was triggered by Federal Fisheries Council when they ask to limit catches in the San Jorge gulf to protect the biomass and the breeding area. After that Yauhar said that Chubut and Santa Cruz top fisheries officials agreed on a joint management plan of the area with coordinated bans and conservation devices.
According to Yauhar provincial authorities agreed to a joint management that contemplates operating the zone with dynamic bans of immediate response and the use of devices to make catches more selective. The Fisheries director originally had acted on a preliminary report on findings from the National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development, INIDEP, which indicated that juveniles in the area were “very scarce” and as a consequence exposed the fishery to immediate risk.
Under such circumstances it is estimated that the selective fishing device identified as ‘Dejupa’ will become mandatory as of next April first for the common hake season. This is because no alternative to this device has yet been found. Yauhar added that having “random” observers in some of the vessels in the zone plus support from Coast Guard staff.
The latest statistics from the Fisheries and Aquaculture Secretariat revealed that hake catches during the first two month of the year was a total of 14.387 tons were landed in Argentine an port, which is 59.7 percent less than in the same period of 2009, when 35.660 tons were unloaded.
