MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Big losses for Spanish squid fleet in Argentina

A reduction in the number of fishing days has cut 25-35 per cent of the annual income of companies that fish the Argentine shortfin squid (Illex argentinus) in Argentinean waters.

Fishing days were cut by 40 per cent, resulting in a drop of 50 per cent in the catch volume.

Companies affected by the early closure of the squid season in the Argentinean Sea include Pescanova, Iberconsa and Pereira, according to a report published by La Voz de Galicia.

The Federal Fisheries Council (CFP) of Argentina decided in May to suspend the squid fishery to the south of parallel 44, following a decline in the squid catch in the Patagonian fishing grounds. The fleet thus moved to the fishing grounds located to the north, where the campaign failed too.

The scientists for the National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) in Argentina had warned that should the extraction volume continue in the southern zone, "there is a high risk that the squid population would not recover for the following year".

Fishing companies have the same fear, and worry that they face another poor campaign in the Argentinean fishing grounds.

A spokesperson of a fishing company with headquarters in Vigo told the Galician newspaper that "it was an atypical and very weird year" for the squid fishing companies.

"Beyond the Argentinean government prohibition, the problem was the short amount of squid available. For some biological reason there was no squid in the Argentinean fishing grounds. There were no catches because there was no resource", he explained.

Squid catches were also poor in the fishing grounds of the Falkland Islands. There, according to the Spanish businessmen, "the season was a total failure". The Argentine Coast Guard (PNA) confirmed the foreign vessels operating outside the 200 miles, most of them Japanese or Korean flagged, left the fishing area en masse as a consequence of the lack of resource.

Many of the squid companies have moored their vessels more than two months ago, and will have to stay there until February, when the new season begins

Source: FIS/MP