FISHERIES-ARGENTINA: Stocks Depleted by EU Boats, Lax Controls

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 1 2000 (IPS) - The hake fishing grounds off Argentina’s Atlantic coast were, until recently, among the richest in the world. But they are now on the verge of depletion due to over-fishing by European boats and the failure of local authorities to implement stricter controls over the industry.

The European Union (EU) earmarks nearly 1.5 billion dollars annually for subsidies for the fishing industry, according to a December study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international conservation organisation.

The EU spent 162 million dollars for fishing off of Argentina’s coasts alone, as part of an agreement in effect from 1994 to 1999.

The accord with Argentina, which established measures for technical and scientific co-operation, investment, joint ventures and the creation of jobs, was cited by the WWF as an example of the possible catastrophic consequences that subsidies applied to the fishing industry can have on nature.

The WWF report warned that Argentina’s fishing grounds, once considered the most productive in the world, were now on the verge of commercial extinction.

The money the EU targets for subsidies has played a direct role in the sharp decline of Argentina’s fish stocks, while local authorities in the Southern Cone country have failed to keep close tabs on fishing activities, and in many cases have been negligent, according to the WWF.

European fishing companies began to receive government support in an attempt to ease pressure on the region’s own depleted stocks, and shifted their activity to areas like the Argentine coast, modernising the Latin American country’s fishing fleet as part of the agreement.

But the boats that were brought in as replacements, especially those from Spain, were only slightly more advanced than the Argentine fleet, although with the capacity to double or triple the total catch. Meanwhile, numerous infringments of official fishing quotas were reported.

Argentina’s National Institute of Fisheries Development, which monitors existing resources and sets catch limits, has warned on several occasions about the negative impact of excessive hake fishing, which at its height surpassed the official catch limits by 50 percent.

In 1995 authorities set the maximum catch at 398,000 tonnes. But the annual catch amounted to 584,000 tonnes that year and to 600,000 tonnes in 1996, the Under-Secretariat of Fisheries reported.

As a result of such violations, the government saw itself forced to set an even lower cap, for fear of completely exhausting stocks.

Although the quotas have been steadily cut back since 1997, fishing boats continue to ignore the limits. Last year’s quota was set at 188,000 tonnes, while boats hauled in 315,000 tonnes – leading Argentina to refuse to extend the agreement with the EU.

The National Institute of Fisheries Development, audited by international organisations, reported that the total hake biomass (the minimum population needed to ensure reproduction of the species) declined 16 percent over the last two years, while the total population dropped 33 percent.

Argentina’s new government, under President Fernando de la Rua, and the traditional local fishing community currently face the difficult choice of suspending fishing activities in order to give the hake population time to recover, or continue fishing to avoid putting thousands of workers out of a job.

The president of the ‘Asociacion de Embarcaciones Costeras’, Cayetano Archidiacono, told IPS that in the port of Mar del Plata alone (400 km south of Buenos Aires), 25,000 people make their living directly from the hake fishing industry, while many others indirectly depend on the industry.

Hake – or ‘merluza hubbsi’ – similar to cod, represents 60 percent of Argentina’s total seafood yield. The species, offered as a delicacy in many restaurants throughout Europe, is a basic part of the Argentine diet.

The government also faces pressure from the local fishing community which uses ‘fresqueros’ – refrigerator boats – that bring in their catch for processing on land, thus creating work for thousands of people.

These boats must compete with the freezer or factory ships that process the fish on board, use fishing methods that harm other species, and are operated by mostly foreign crews. Freezer ships are the favourite of European fishing companies for use along the Argentine coast.

“Until the freezer ships appeared, we never had to fish for more than a day or two to fill the hold. But they came with their enormous fishing capacity, and now it looks like we have to pay the price,” complained Archidiacono.

The De la Rua government, which took office in December, set limits on hake fishing for the first quarter of the year as one of its first “emergency” measures. But the quota was already fulfilled before the end of January.

A ban then automatically kicked in, drawing immediate protests from the local fresquero fishing community, which complained that it was directly affected by the measure even though it was not responsible for the overfishing of hake.

The non-governmental National Fishing Defence Centre (Cedepesca), while acknowledging that the hake population needed to recover, warned that the Feb 15 to Mar 31 ban failed to take the social impact into account.

Authorities “must consider a social emergency plan including the participation of those affected, and a programme for alternative production,” said Cedepesca’s Ernesto Godelman.

The international environmental watchdog Greenpeace also maintained that the government should not simply order a ban on hake fishing, but should take care of natural resources through control measures and alternative fishing projects, through the use of subsidies, until the threatened species is able to recover.

The Mar del Plata fishing community proposed that the government lift the ban Feb 27 instead of Mar 31, suggesting that they would then fish out at sea, and much less frequently – always under the close watch of authorities.

“Each boat that returns would have to remain at dock 96 hours before going out again,” was one of the compromises suggested by Archidiacono, who added that the fresquero fishing community was willing to accept two planned fishing bans a year – in June and December.

Such measures would considerably reduce the fish catch without sharply affecting the well-being of small and medium-sized fishing outfits, which have been fishing for hake here since the early 1900s, he explained.

Meanwhile, the government should closely study the EU’s demands for a renewal of the fishing accord for another five years, while implementing strict control measures for the industry, Archidiacono stressed.