MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine hake hubbsi catch quotas in 15 days time.

Authorities from the Argentine fishery sector anticipated that quotas for hake hubbsi catches will be announced within 15 days upon reaching the expiration of the January quota restrictions. According to Fisheries and Aquaculture Under-secretary Gerardo Nieto there already exists an “initial agreement with all sectors involved.”

In an interview with DyN news agency, Mr. Nieto said that of the 330,000 tonnes signalled as maximum quota south of parallel 41°S in 2004, catches already amount to 115,000 tonnes.

Hake catch quotas have become a most contentious issue between the federal government and the different sectors of the Argentine fishery industry forcing the suspension of recent resolutions.

Hubbsi hake is not the only controversial species; something similar is happening with squid given the poor catches which forced an early closure of the fishery south of parallel 44°S. Mr. Nieto indicated that a scientific research cruise is currently collecting data on the squid fishery.

"This season the squid catch was only 35,000 tons, far below the historic average of 200,000 tons", said Mr. Nieto adding that he was not so optimistic about the recent opening of the squid fishery north of parallel 44. "Resource availability is uncertain because of a high fluctuation rate which means poor catches."

So far authorities are claiming that climatic conditions are behind the current squid crisis in the South Atlantic, which is extensive to Falkland Islands waters.

"Environmental factors such as sea temperature and oceanic conditions must be taken into account. This year we faced a most atypical situation and consequently a much lower resource availability", underlined Mr. Nieto. (FIS/MP).-