MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina unbending with hake conservation.

Argentine Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Secretariat (SAGPyA) Miguel Campos will be announcing an additional distribution of 16,500 tonnes of common hake (Merluccius hubbsi) for this season among Argentine vessels.

Fisheries Undersecretary sources revealed to the newspaper La Capital from Mar del Plata that although the new resolution has not yet been published in the Official Bulletin, the text is ready and has been signed.

The 16,500 tonnes are part of the 24,500 tonnes that were reserved to be delivered to companies in a critical situation or with specific problems with a social impact such as having exhausted the whole of the officially established quotas.

According to fishermen unions from the port of Mar del Plata, Fisheries Undersecretary Gerardo Nieto anticipated that 60% of the additional hake quota would be allocated to Buenos Aires province vessels and the remaining volume distributed among vessels operating in Patagonian provinces.

Meanwhile all those vessels that have fulfilled their hake quotas have been forced to remain moored under surveillance from the Argentine Coast Guard.

This year's common hake maximum allowable catch was set by the Argentine government at 405,000 tonnes, and once the distribution of the 16,500 tonnes become official "the remaining 8,000 tonnes will be saved for extreme cases" emphasized Roberto Toledo from the Mar del Plata fisheries union.

Regarding 2005 fishing quotas, Mr. Toledo stated "there have been absolutely no talks whatsoever about next year's quotas, although our impression is that Mr. Nieto remains fully committed to the conservation of the resource, in spite of the tremendous pressure he has to put up" said the union leader after a meeting with the Fisheries Undersecretary. "I presume he has full support from "upstairs" given his commitment with the conservation of the hake resource". (FIS/MP).-