FISHERIES-ARGENTINA: Gov’t Aims to Strengthen Control over Fishing

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 16 2001 (IPS) - Argentina wants to expand the area in which it exercises control over fishing in the Atlantic from 200 to 350 maritime miles, in order to fight predatory fishing practices by foreign vessels, President Fernando de la Rúa announced Friday.

There is a veritable “floating city” of boats fishing for squid near Argentina’s 200-mile maritime limit, the Secretary of Agriculture, Stockbreeding, Fisheries and Food, Antonio Berongaray, said after flying over the area.

Oscar Fortunato, with the Council of Argentine Fishing Companies, told IPS that Chile, Ecuador and Peru had already extended the area in which they exercise control over fishing activities in the Pacific to 350 maritime miles.

At the next session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Feb 26 in Rome, Argentina’s delegates will present documentation demonstrating that foreign vessels are fishing in a predatory fashion.

However, the extension of the area in which Argentina exercises control over fishing would overlap with the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Malvinas/Falkland islands, which are ruled by Britain.

Photos published in the local press Friday show several of the nearly 300 mainly Asian deep-sea fishing vessels shining bright lights into the sea to attract squid, a species that moves back and forth between Argentina’s EEZ and international waters.

Fisheries Director Horacio Rieznik said the fishing boats located just outside of the 200-mile limit attract the squid “as if they were mosquitos.

“They are pillaging our resources day and night, and stealing employment opportunities from Argentineans,” he complained.

Vessels from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, as well as a few Spanish boats, fish along the maritime limit in an area of the South Atlantic which offers the best squid fishing-grounds in the world.

The National Institute of Fisheries Development, which carries out research on Argentina’s marine resources, recommended that to preserve the species, no more than 150 vessels should fish the area simultaneously during squid-fishing season, which stretches from February to June. It also said only 60 percent of the stocks should be fished.

However, the number of boats in the area now stands at 350, only 50 of which are Argentinean, and stocks in the area are being depleted.

“This is a question of the utmost importance for us,” President De la Rúa acknowledged Friday.

Argentina’s annual seafood exports have climbed as high as one billion dollars in the past, eclipsing sales of beef, this Southern Cone country’s traditional export product. However, due to predatory fishing by foreign boats, the total fell to 850 million dollars last year.

Fortunato told IPS that the problem was aggravated by the fact that “Argentina’s freezer vessels are not authorised to operate in the 170 to 200-mile portion of the EEZ due to questions of preservation” of marine species.

Meanwhile, boats that bring in fresh seafood cannot fish so far from port, because their catch could spoil.

Freezer boats can only gain access to that portion of the EEZ with the unanimous authorisation of the five coastal provinces in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region, a measure aimed at protecting “hubbsi hake”, another species that has been overfished in recent years.

Fortunato said there were two alternatives for protecting species that live mainly within the EEZ of coastal states, but which also venture into international waters.

One is for coastal states and those with interests in local fishing-grounds to set up a commission to regulate fishing in the area, leaving the coastal state in question the greatest weight in decision-making. But “that is like putting the fox in charge of the chickens,” Fortunato joked.

The other option is to seek permission to extend the state’s control over fishing activities by another 150 miles, which means it decides how many vessels can enter the area to fish, what techniques they can use, at what depth they can fish, etc., the fisheries official explained.

But “to defend that position, the state must have a seriously organised internal administration and a budget that we are lacking today. The monitoring capacity of the navy and coast guard can also be improved, but in order for their work to be useful, they must answer to that well-organised administration,” he added.

In the case of Argentina, the international environmental lobby Greenpeace and the local environmental groups Fundación Vida Silvestre and Cedepesca say the state has done little to nothing to prevent overfishing in the past few years, and the lack of state controls has drawn a large foreign fleet which has already exhausted fishing-grounds elsewhere.

Javier Colcuera, with the Fundación Vida Silvestre, said that in the 1990s environmentalists and local fishing concerns denounced the practice of so-called “twin ships” within Argentina’s EEZ, which consists of using two look-alike boats using the same name and licence number in order to fish double the allowed catch.