MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fisheries News.

Headlines: Chubut vessel owners warned: no records, no permit; Argentina's tariffs hit Ecuadorian tuna; Fisheries development top priority for Brazil; Scientists cracking white shrimp genetic code; Shellfish sector considers industrial seed production; WWF warns fish farming eating into wild fish stocks.

Chubut vessel owners warned: no records, no permit

Vessel owners must submit records for inclusion in the Industrial Fishery Vessels File if they want to renew their shrimp permits, indicated Chubut Province, Argentina, fisheries authorities. According to the Maritime Interests and Inland Fisheries Directorate, fishing companies have by law, until 31 March to present the required documentation to the Ministry of Production in Rawson, Chubut. The Directorate says it will not renew the permit to operate in provincial waters of any vessel owner that does not fulfil these requirements, or if a vessel's file is incomplete or out of date. According to the regulations, each vessel's record must include its technical documentation and relevant background information. For each vessel, shrimp companies will have to include certified photocopies the Navigational Safety Certificate issued by the Argentine Naval Prefecture (ANP), a valid registration and National Fishing Permit, as well as proof of ownership and any lease or charter contract. A blueprint of the vessel and a certificate of storage capacity - both issued by the ANP - must also be presented. The regulations only apply to vessels requiring an industrial fishing permit. Quota expiry dates corresponding to industrial fishing permits will be fixed each year and accounts must be settled according to Directorate rules. (FIS/MP).

Argentina's tariffs hit Ecuadorian tuna

Ecuadorian fish exports are being hit by the high tariffs Argentina has slapped on fish imports, especially sardine and tuna. Argentina - one of the country's main tuna buyers - behind US, France, Spain, Holland, England and Germany - hiked tariffs on imports of tuna, sardine, and other goods from 4 to 18% cent in response to Ecuador's Rural Sanitation Service (SESA) ban on meat imports from Argentina. "This is nothing to do with the fishing sector and yet it ends up being hit the hardest by the Argentine decision," said National Fisheries Chamber president, Cesar Rohón. According to the Chamber, Ecuador sells ten times more seafood to Argentina than it buys meat products. "Tuna sales alone are worth USD 30 million a year," Mr Rohón told El Universo. But, as a result of the tariff issue, 20 containers of tuna were held up in Guayaquil harbour last week, he added. Mr Rohón accused Manuel Chiriboga, the Ecuadorian Agricultural Policy Deputy Secretary of doing nothing to solve the conflict. But Chiriboga said the tariff was being used as a means of pressuring Ecuador to accept larger amounts of Argentine beef. Ecuador's White Fish Exporters Association (Asoexpebla) chairman Juan Benincasa Azúa said the Association gave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Livestock advance warning of these problems but they hadn't been resolved yet because of the recent change in government, reports Expreso. (FIS/MP).

Fisheries development top priority for Brazil

Brazil hopes to fully integrate fisheries extraction, processing, marketing and research and is planning specific credit lines for the industry's developing and building cold storage facilities throughout the country. Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister José Fritsch announced the department's priorities during a visit to several cities in Santa Catarina State, where the industry is most developed in Brazil. Meeting with the fisheries industry representatives, Mr. Fritsch emphasized that although Brazil has 8,500 kilometres of coastline, the country figure 27th in world fisheries production. However, Mr. Fritsch said that although Brazil currently produces less than one million tonnes a year, the fisheries sector is ripe for development and sustained growth, particularly in freshwater fishing and sea farming. "We are targeting the creation of another half a million jobs over the next four years as well as boosting domestic consumption" underlined Mr. Fritsch also added his Ministry will be working closely with the Ministry of Education to advance in the elimination of 70% illiteracy among fishermen. In Floranópolis, capital of Santa Catarina, Mr. Fritsch discussed the possibility of creating a University of the Sea to help the industry with training, research and development. To finance the new projects, Fritsch is negotiating a grant from the Merchant Navy Fund to build a modern, technologically advanced, high seas fleet. The cold storage program is to be financed by the Brazilian Bank for Economic and Social Development. (FIS/MP).-

Scientists cracking white shrimp genetic code

Scientists from the Brazilian Federal University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) and from other Brazilian research institutions are trying to crack white shrimp genetic code to improve production and fight diseases. Litopenaeus vannamei, is expected to become Brazil's most widely exploited species in the next three years, reports Jornal de Comercio. The project has a 750,000 US dollars funding. The white shrimp genome is thought to consist of two million base pairs, although scientists would only be working on the active parts of the genome, "expressed sequences" or EST, said project leader Pedro Manoel Galetti Júnior. During the first phase "300,000 EST will be mapped and 50,000 genes are expected to be found in them," he added. Similar projects are being conducted in United States and Australia on other similar species such as tiger shrimp. But the Brazilian project chose the country's most important commercial species Litopenaeus vannamei in preference to other species extensively farmed such as the Atlantic sea bob, vila franca shrimp and pink shrimp, said Galetti. "The Litopenaeus vannamei genome can help in the development of white shrimp," and make the species more resistant to diseases. One of our concerns is the Taura virus, which now affects 70% of the shrimp stock in Ecuador," said fisheries biologist Maria Raquel Coimbra who is leading the genome project in Pernambuco University. Over 100 producers belong to the Brazilian Association of Shrimp Farmers (ABCC), based in Recife, which is particularly interested in the research and has plans to sponsor the continuation of the project. The research is coordinated by experts from San Carlos Federal University (Ufcar) and supported by 14 laboratories from eight different states: Maranhao, Ceará, Río Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Bahía, Santa Catarina, Río Grande do Sul and Sao Paulo. Last year, Brazilian shrimp production reached 60,000 tonnes, mostly white shrimp. Between 75 and 80% of total production was exported, half to the United States and the other half to the European Union, with Spain and France as the main markets.(FIS/MP).

Shellfish sector considers industrial seed production

Galician authorities in northwest Spain are planning to boost shellfish production and mitigate the impact of bad weather through industrial seed production, which "is the key to exploiting a great market niche, reducing seed imports and increasing production". It is hoped that the proposed National Seed Production Plan will enable Galician shellfish producers to double their volumes of clam and other species, and help manual shellfish gatherers to also increase their production volumes by 40 to 50%. "An excess of rain and the increase of fresh water on sand banks can reduce clam production by 40 to 50%, but the impact could be reduced by this controlled production scheme", Alejandro Guerra, from Vilanova Marine Research Centre told La Voz de Galicia. Around 40,000 tonnes of clams are consumed in Spain each year, but experts reckon only 6,475 come from Galician estuaries. They believe this volume could be increased through controlled production but admit this is still at an experimental stage. On the five existing farms, Galicia already produces 155 million samples of various species, such as grooved carpet shell, blennies, Japanese clam and oyster, per year. But production of juveniles for cultivation is one of the sector areas that is less developed, as "there are records of high mortality rates at the seed pre-fattening stage," says a Fisheries Council report. The main objective of this initiative is "to make manual shellfish gathering become similar to aquaculture, through an industrial production plan that will generate more companies and jobs," continues the report. The project, coordinated by the Galician Xunta, also encompasses the communities of Andalusia, Catalonia, Cantabria and Asturias. (FIS/MP).-

WWF warns fish farming eating into wild fish stocks

Fish farming, often regarded as a way of protecting wild fish stocks from overfishing is threatening to deplete some species because reared salmon or trout is fed with fish meal, the conservation organisation WWF International said on Tuesday in Switzerland. WWF said a new report on the use of marine resources in fish feed reveals that salmon, trout, tuna, sea bream and cod reared in farms consume about 70 percent of the global production of fish oil, and 34 percent of the world's fishmeal. About one-third of total annual fish catches are destined for fish feed, according to WWF. The environmental group estimates that about four kilograms of fish caught on the open seas -- mainly blue whiting and pilchards -- are needed to produce one kilogram of farmed fish. "In its current state, aquaculture is contributing to an increased pressure on already depleting fish stocks," Simon Cripps, director of WWF endangered seas programme, said in a statement. With the growing trend for aquaculture, WWF wants governments to develop and provide farmers with alternative ways of feeding the fish they rear, such as developing the use of fish normally discarded from catches or plant-based proteins. "Aquaculture can play an important role to provide adequate supply of fish to consumers, but it must happen in tandem with sustainable fisheries," Cripps added. Most of the feed and oils are produced by industrial fisheries plying their trade in the northeast Atlantic and off the coast of Chile and Peru. WWF concern focused on the 1.8 million tonnes of blue whiting caught in 2001, a figure which is more than double the annually approved quota although the species is "on the brink of collapse". (FIS/MP).-