DEVELOPMENT-ENVIRONMENT: Argentina in Row Over Hake Fishing

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 8 1999 (IPS) - Over-fishing of hake in the southern Atlantic off Argentina has brought the species to verge of extinction, according to marine researchers.

The trouble stems from fishing fleets ignoring an agreement signed in 1994 between Argentina and the European Union to preserve the breeding grounds of the “hubassi” variety of hake. The agreement currently is under review.

In the meantime the capture of this species, which represents 60 percent of the fishing in the southern Atlantic, increased 400 percent in 10 years. Established limits on the size of catches were ignored to the extent that, between 1986 and 1998, hake resources decreased by 43 percent, researchers said.

The Argentine National Institute for Fishing Research and Development (INIDEP) warned that “biological indicators show that the situation is serious and the possibility of collapse (of hake stocks) is high.”

Each year, INIDEP establishes the volumes allowed according to the existence of a critical biomass necessary for the species to reproduce. That minimum, which should be 30 percent of the total, already is down to 19 percent in the case of the hubassi hake.

Ernesto Godelman, of the non-governmental organization CeDePesca, said in an interview that fishing flotillas with their own freezing factory ships were responsible for the grim outlook for hake fishing. Moreover they produced enormous volumes of waste, he added.

Of the almost 400,000 tons allowed by the INIDEP in 1993, the limit was reduced to 280,000 in 1998. But the fishing boats almost always go over – sometimes doubling – the amounts permitted, Godelman said.

In 1998, more than 480,000 tons of hake were captured, without taking into account smaller fish, which were returned dead to the sea.

Basically, there are two types of boats devoted to hake fishing.

There are the fresh fish boats that transport the product in containers of ice, and which are mostly run by native fishermen descendants from immigrants. Once they fill their containers, they dock at the ports to sell their catch.

The freezer flotillas, on the other hand, are factory-boats that have the capacity to process the fish and freeze it at high sea, to later sell it on the international market. The owners of these flotillas are national industrialists or foreigners who form associations in order to make use of the quotas.

Ninety percent of the production of the freezer fleets is for export and the majority of the personnel on board the boats are from the country where the catch is destined. The Argentine captains of those boats constantly denounce that they have to obey orders from the personnel.

Many of the freezer fleets arrived in the southern Atlantic under the guise of the accord between Argentina and the EU, an initiative that emerged in response to the need to compensate for the depletion of European breeding areas, reducing by 40 percent the continent’s flotilla with the aim of decompressing the northern seas.

But with the withdrawal of the boats from Europe, there was a surge in over fishing in Argentina. From 250 million dollars of fish exported in 1987, it went to 1.2 billion in 1997.

Jorge Tapper, president of the organization freezer fleets (CAPECA), acknowledged in an interview that fishing resources are on the verge of extinction, but justified the replacement of traditional fishing boats with “freezers”, as he considered the former to be “obsolete”.

“The effects of the agreement with the EU was neutral, because from the point of view of fishing, it replaced obsolete boats with more modern ones. But both deplete fish stocks in the same way…and the problem is that the authorities do not control them”, Tapper accused.

The traditional boats “are fighting to send the freezer fleets away, but we have to see if they are willing to go out and fish far from the coasts, close to the Malvinas Islands”, Tapper said. He also had strong criticism for senator Osvaldo Sala for “protecting them”.

Salas had recommended giving priority to the “old-fashioned” boats in establishing quotas. These boats supply the thousands of processing plants on shore. He proposed to send the freezer boats out to capture other species, more than 200 miles east of the Argentine shore.

One traditional fisherman, Pino Ritorno, argued that the freezer fleets had “dried up the ocean”.

Ritorno, the son of Italian immigrant fisherfolk, recalled that 10 years ago, he needed only 48 hours to fill up one of the containers. Now, he must stay at sea for at least 11 days.

The problem of lack of regulation on the part of the authorities was singled out by all the parties involved in the debate.

In 1998, the Office of Agriculture, Fishing and Livestock denounced the accord with the EU so that it would not automatically be extended in May this year.

The Secretary of Agriculture, Gumersindo Alonso, argued that the government felt it needed to hold new discussions about the agreement, because “the breeding area is not what was five years ago”. One of the new measures under discussion is the prohibition of associations, which led to many illegalities.

A study conducted by the under secretary’s office for Fishing when it was directed by the owner of a freezing firm, revealed that the transfer of quotas had been done almost entirely in an irregular fashion.

The boats giving up their permits had a much lower capacity then those who were getting new permits. There were also quotas filled by boats that were inactive and other issued for species other than hake, but which were later used to extract hake.

The current under secretary for fishing, Eduardo Auguste, is also the president of a company of freezer boats, and was one of those that benefitted from a quota of almost 7,000 tons for a boat that had long been removed from the breeding area.

Godelman explained that the argument that the agreement with the EU served to replace obsolete boats by modern ones with the same capabilities is “self-delusion”.

“How is one supposed to believe that boats with the capacity to carry 12,000 tons will adhere to an annual quota of 2,500?”, he asked.

According to Godelman, the defence of traditional fisahing communities was crucial from a socio-economic point of view, as well as the environmental one. Emiliano Ezcurra of Greenpeace agrees.

Mar del Plata, where the headquarters of CeDePesca is, is the most important port in Argentina. Located 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, it houses some 50,000 fishermen and workers for processing plants, which provide jobs for thousands of others.

In April, INIDEP will determine the new quota for this year. CeDePesca anticipated that the maximum will be close to 200,000 tons, which already implies that the capacity of the fleets of fresh fishers will be reduced by two thirds.

Government officials drew up a plan through which, beginning this year, all boats would be restricted to catching 50 percent less than they did in 1998. But when the quotas were assigned, the freezer boats benefitted with the largest amounts.

As CeDePesca says, if the southern Atlantic breeding area dries up, the boats with the greatest capacity will go elsewhere, while the traditional fishermen will be left without a vital resource.