MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Administration sorts out its fisheries problem.

ARGENTINE ADMINISTRATION SORTS OUT ITS FISHERIES PROBLEM.

Severe criticisms by Falklands Councillors of the inability by the Argentine Government to provide important fisheries data, as agreed in the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission (SAFC), has resulted in a recent improvement in the information forthcoming from Buenos Aires, according to the Islands Fisheries Director John Barton. Speaking on Falklands radio he said, ?We did have problems getting data from Argentina during the early part of the season. They had a number of changes in their administration which may have led to that. Subsequently the data exchange has got back on track'.

The most significant criticism came from Councillor Richard Cockwell during a meeting of the Legislative Council, when he said that between January 2001 and almost the end of March the National Institute of Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) ?failed to provide any scientific information to its British counterparts, despite an earlier agreement'. One despatch was received late in March but ?the next despatch was not received until 27 April'. He noted that since then data transfers to Imperial College in London has been ?approximately at weekly intervals'. He went on to say that the British Government had, on behalf of the Falklands Government, taken up the matter with their counterparts in the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The SAFC includes representatives of the Argentine, British and Falklands Governments and was originally established in 1990. Since then 19 meetings have been held, lasting 3-4 days on each occasion with the scientific sub-committee often meeting for longer periods. ?It was set up because we obviously have matters of mutual concern in relation to fish stocks between the Falklands and Argentina', said John Barton.

The Falklands Director of Fisheries was somewhat more subdued in his criticism of INIDEP as he noted that ?The Argentines closed their fishery early on the 14 June and our fishery closed on the 15 June. Had we not had the hick-up (2 months silence from Argentina) over data earlier in the year, perhaps we might have got to a stage where the closure might have happened a bit earlier. Nonetheless, I think it is useful that those fisheries have closed now and that will hopefully cons