MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands: Record Loligo catch, 53,578 tons, fifth year in a row

Dr Clausen had said the run of high catches of Loligo was the result of a suite of management measures applied to make commercial stock sustainable.

Falkland Islands Director of Natural Resources Dr. Andrea Clausen reported there was another high catch of Loligo squid during this year’s first season, the fifth year in a row. Dr Andrea Clausen said in her report for the Fisheries Committee, meeting on June, that the total catch of Loligo had been 53,578 tons.

Likewise hake are being caught in record numbers. The catch stood at 16,190 tons at the time of the report, the highest ever. However, Dr Clausen reported that the Illex catch (45,452 tons) had been “modest.” She said at the meeting that the catch was “not out of kilter but low.”

High loligo catch for first season

Dr Clausen had said the run of high catches of Loligo was the result of a suite of management measures applied to make commercial stock sustainable.

There was no immediate agreement on a proposal that, from the start of the second season, compensatory days for bad weather can only be claimed if there has been a Met Office gale warning.

Meanwhile Dr Veronica Iriarte was able to tell the meeting that there has been a 50% reduction from last year in marine mammal deaths during the first Loligo season and a 74% reduction in seabird deaths.

Management measures

Some of the other management measures being applied in Falklands waters came up for discussion at the meeting. A paper was presented by Dr Andreas Winter about the scientific advice for next year’s finfish licenses.

This is the third year in which the current system has been used to allocate Vessel Units and this year it has resulted in decreased quotas because hake was “over-caught” last year.

Representatives of the fishing industry expressed concern about the impact of this but the Director said she had not heard anyone complain about the system when there had been an increase.

One member of the committee asked if the 2021 baseline was right in the first place. (Another scientific paper presented at the meeting showed that common hake is the one species of fish of which stocks have increased since 2010 -three other species have significantly declined.)

The Director said more information was needed about the whole stock of fish that migrate but the best was being made of a difficult situation. She said it would be irresponsible to say “fish what you want” just because of geopolitical considerations. Further discussions are due to take place before a final deci-is made.

Illex licenses

Meetings have been taking place between the Fisheries Department and the industry about changes to Illex licenses for 2024. Meanwhile, there have been early meetings with the Illex Operators Group about plans to bring Illex into the ITQ system, but the Director, told the meeting a paper was not yet ready to go to Executive Council.

Penalties

Work also continues on a system of administrative penalties for licence breaches. Dr Clausen said this had “moved ahead quite considerably.” She said there was “a simplified, logical solution” that was currently being checked to see if it would be possible. (Penguin News)