MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine jigger fleet discouraged, but statistics show 50% increase in squid catches

Catches at the start of the season averaged 16 tons of squid per night

This year’s squid (Illex argentinus) season took off January first with encouraging catches in Argentina but then went sour with steady declines in volume according to the industry. However official figures show that total registered catches were up over 50%.

To the north, between parallels 42º and 44º, the initial yield amounted to 16 tons per day per vessel, but in the last 10 days catches were down to less than a ton per day per jigger.

Last week Argentina’s Federal fisheries council, (CFP) ratified squid commercial catches by 13 separate vessels in the 42° and 44° parallels area despite refusal of several fishing chambers to participate with their jiggers given the low catches.

Pescare reported that the satellite map shows just two fishing vessels operating to the south of parallel 44º while several others are scheduled to return to Mar del Plata.

CFP requested the National Institute for Fishing Research and Development (INIDEP) to prepare a report on the current situation of squid stocks supported with the appropriate biological indicators.

According to the experience reported by the captain of the Orion 3 jigger, the current situation of the squid fisheries can only be described as ‘critical’.

“After leaving Belgrano port, we spent 47 days at sea but we couldn't fill our storage capacity. This is a 600-ton ship and we brought back 400 tons of mostly whole squid” said Captain Carlos Omufrovicm in an interview with Santa Cruz’s Periodico Austral.

“Until the fourth night we caught 30 to 50 tons, but as time went by catches fell abruptly with days when hardly anything was caught,” he added.

Captain Omuforvicm added that “at first the sizes were SS, then S and now most are M” but then captures ranged from 4 to 8 tons. Omufrovicm describes the season as “bad” since in normal times, it was possible “to fill the vessel in about 20 days”.

But data provided by Argentina’s Undersecretary for Fisheries, between January first and April 20, reports 43,254.1 tons of squid were unloaded, which represents a 54.5% increase over the same period the year before when catches from January to April 30 reached 27,984.9 tons. (MP/FIS).-