MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland's fishery April performance encouraging

This year the performance of the Falkland Islands fishery continues to be encouraging with the total catch for the month (46,861 tonnes) being the highest catch in April in the last five years.

A total of 103 licenses were valid in April, including 43 licenses for jiggers, reports the Falklands Fishery Department.

Illex.As predicted in our report last month, the good Illex fishery carried on into April. All jigging vessels fished for Illex throughout the month, each ship stopping for a few days to tranship the squid in Berkeley Sound. Apart from the licensed vessels, a significant number of vessels operating on the High Seas have also visited Berkeley Sound to tranship Illex. Whilst activity in Berkeley Sound has not returned to former levels, there have been more reefers and tankers there than has been the case for some time.

The best catches were achieved in the first week with an impressive average of 47 tonnes per night. As in March, squid were mainly concentrated in the warm water inflow located in the northern part of the FICZ.

In the second half of the month, the inflow started to disintegrate due to the autumn cooling that somewhat dispersed the squid aggregations. Also, at this time of the year the early migrating South Patagonian Stock of Illex (ESPS) finished feeding in the northern part of the Falkland Shelf and started to move back north to the High Seas to spawn. The cumulative effect of these two events caused a decrease in average catches to 27 tonnes per night. A fierce storm on 29 April left only half of the jiggers working with their catches plummeting down to 7.6 tonnes. It took a couple of days to recover after the storm. Squid sizes of the ESPS squid were usual for the month (26-29 cm mantle length). After the end of the Loligo season, some trawlers moved to the High Seas and had a benefit from the northward ESPS migrations there. In the last week of April, these trawlers had an average of 27 tonnes per day.

At the end of April, larger squid (31-34 cm mantle length) of the late migrating SPS (LSPS) appeared in the western part of the FICZ. During March and April these squid were in the southern part of the Patagonian Shelf inside the Argentinean EEZ. Given the favourable oceanographic conditions observed this year, the LSPS squid are expected to migrate through the FICZ in May-June and will be the main target for the jigger fleet here.

Loligo. Only 15 trawlers fished for Loligo until the end of the season (14 April), as one of the vessels (Venturer) was sent off the playground 12 days earlier due to the expiry of its licence. As in March, trawlers worked mainly in the southern part of the Loligo box. Catches continued to decline from 20 tonnes per day in the beginning to 11-12 tonnes per day at the end of the period with one strong drop in the middle (5.9 tonnes per day on 6 April). Several trawlers tried to fish in the northern and middle parts of the Loligo box, but had small catches and returned back to the Beauchene region. Cold waters in the region did not favour to increase squid growth with the result that the captains had to fill the holds of their ships with small squid (average 10 cm mantle length).

The total catch in April was only a third of that observed during the bumper first Loligo season of the last year, but it was approximately at the same level of catches observed in 2002-2004. The total catch for the first season (19,415 tonnes) makes it another successful season for the Loligo fishery. The projected spawning stock biomass at the start of the spawning season (end of May) was estimated to be 16,500 tonnes, indicating that the conservation target (10,000 tonnes) has been met.

Finfish. In the absence of surimi trawlers (one licence was issued but the ship did not appear), the total catch of southern blue whiting was the second lowest catch in April since 2000. This abundant fish was taken only as a by-catch during the finfish fishery. Catches of hoki (the main target finfish) were much improved compared to that of last month. Interestingly, the abundance of hakes this year is quite high, resulting in several trawlers diverting from Illex fishing to hake fishing. Consequently, the total catch of hakes (1,104 tonnes) was almost twice as high as the previous monthly record observed in April 1999. Occasional catches of 15-17 tonnes per day undoubtedly resurrected the captains' memories about the good old days of hake fishing in the Southwest Atlantic! Catches of kingclip and redcod were also about twice as high as average April catches of these fish since 2000. After the record catch in March, catches of toothfish this month were back to normal as the successful Korean potter only worked for 15 days.

The Uruguayan trawler ?Holberg' arrived at the end of the month to finish off its remaining quota for scallops