MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Greater confidence expected in Falklands' Fishery as Ilex returns to South-West Atlantic
Stacey Bragger of the Falkland Islands Radio Station (FIRS) today spoke to the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department's Chief Scientist, Dr. Alexander Arkhipkin and to its Director, John Barton about the progress of the present Ilex season in the Falklands Conservation Area, which appears to have been strikingly better than those of the two previous years.
Questioned as to when the current season would end, Dr. Arkhipkin said, "Biologically, we now have squid coming from Argentine zones through Falklands waters and there are indications that the season should still remain good, possibly for another two weeks. The main indicator for that are the relative quantities of males and females. Now we can see that females are predominant in all catches, which tells us that the males have migrated north and the females are following them."
On catch levels in recent months, Fisheries Director John Barton commented, "They've still been very good, if a bit variable. There've been one or two periods of poor weather, which have reduced catches. Generally they've been good. Catches now in the zone are up over 70,000 tonnes, which means that on average the catch per vessel has been in the order of 1,700 tonnes and that's a pretty good result for Falklands' zones. Most of the fishing companies that have been involved in the Falklands Fishery this year will hopefully be pretty satisfied."
He continued, "It was very encouraging to see that Ilex had returned in significant numbers again. Certainly at the end of last year, there were obviously quite a few doubts about how 2006 would turn out, so the fact that we have seen a lot of squid, that there have been high catches and that Ilex have returned generally in the South-West Atlantic, has been encouraging."
Mr. Barton said although a greater take-up of licences had been hoped for, it was to be expected that after two years of rather poor catches the industry would be cautious and he hoped that the fact that the companies that had operated in Falklands waters this year had enjoyed good results would lead to increased confidence in the future.
Asked whether the cancellation by Argentina of the usual joint scientific research cruise had hindered the accurate prediction of the Ilex harvest for next season, Director Barton commented that this ?pre-recruit' survey had been a useful technique for assessing squid stocks, providing, as it did, useful information which went into the model to determine how many squid there were, particularly towards the end of the season, when it helped with the assessment of whether an early closure might be necessary. It was unfortunate that this information had not been available this year, but there were other methods for assessing squid stock that his department had used before the instigation of joint pre-recruit surveys. "We shall just have to rely on them" he concluded.
John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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