Falkland Islands Director of National Resources, John Barton, reported that after a slow start, fishery catches were beginning to pick up: trawlers had started operating and there were only a few jiggers still to collect their licenses.
By Senior Fisheries Scientist Dr Alexander Arkhipkin - The Department of Natural Resources (Fisheries) has reported that seal mortalities were brought to negligible levels thanks to recent mitigation measures. Since the end of August, all Loligo trawlers were required to have seal exclusion devices (SEDs) in their trawls.
Falkland Islands Senior Fisheries Scientist Dr Alexander Arkhipkin explains the habits of fur seals and the efforts undertaken to reduce by-catch in the Loligo fishery. Stocks of Falkland calamari (Loligo) are very prolific this year.
The Journal of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (*) has this month released a special issue focussing on Ascension Island’s marine biodiversity. Falklands' based SAERI Director Dr Paul Brickle explained that 20 papers reported on the results of 202 sampling events, comprising a mixture of quantitative SCUBA surveys involving belt transects for fish and mobile fauna and quadrat photography for sessile fauna.
The Falkland Islands Fisheries Department scientists are currently investigating whether changes in fishing gear used in the finfish and loligo fleets can reduce by-catch, Fisheries Scientist Alexander Arkhipkin told Penguin News.
VESSELS fishing for the squid species Illex argentinus in Falklands waters have been reporting poor catches of around two and five ton per day so far this season, confirmed Falkland Islands Fisheries Scientist Alexander Arkhipkin.