Fishing landings in all seaports reached 174 thousand tons. Last year there had been 221 thousand tons. It is explained by the lower abundance of squid south of 44 ° S and the parenthesis of the fleet due to the coronavirus.

 

Statistics reflecting the movement of fishing landings in seaports also mark a decline in the level of activity in the industry. According to the recent update provided by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries, in the first quarter of the year 174,598 tons of marine products were unloaded at all terminals on the maritime coast.

 

 

The figure represents a reduction of more than 25% compared to the same period last year. Between January and March 2019, general discharges had reached 221,072 tons.

 

Mar del Plata leads the record as usual and maintains a certain regularity in the year-on-year comparison. There were 79,111.7 tons in the first quarter of 2020 against 80,481 tons in the quarter of last year.

 

Further back is Rawson, with 33 thousand tons as a result of the shrimp season in provincial waters, and the third step of the podium is occupied by Puerto Deseado with 22,329 tons, mostly squid unloaded by the jigger fleet.

 

Among the other ports, Puerto Madryn stands out with 15,776 tons; Ushuaia with 12,627; Caleta Paula adds 7 thousand tons, almost all hubbsi hake. Further back, Comodoro Rivadavia with 2,754 tons.

 

In the comparison with January-March 2019, all ports lowered their level of unloading, except Ushuaia, which accumulated a thousand more tons. The greatest decreases occurred in Puerto Deseado and Puerto Madryn, which last year received 38,000 and 25,000 tons respectively. Rawson had a less significant drop (37,863 tons) and Mar del Plata had almost no variations (80,481 tons) thanks to the squid that the Patagonian ports yielded.

 

Despite registering a decrease in landings of 30% compared to last year, illex is the main unloaded resource of the period with 61 thousand tons. Then the hake appears south of 41 ° S, with 47 thousand tons, of which 34,653 were landed in Mar del Plata. The shrimp contributed 33,788 tons.

 

 

The health emergency decreed by the arrival of the coronavirus in the country also explains the significant reduction in discharges. The fleet spent more than two weeks with suspended pawns and although they were released as of April 1 with the sanitary protocol, at least in Mar del Plata very few boats have gone out to fish, most without inspectors from the Fishing District.

 

In this sense, it was learned that the Control and Inspection Directorate has transferred the workers' refusal to embark to the Human Resources area to evaluate possible sanctions. According to Luca Pratti, the inspectors are reached by the sanitary protocol agreed by maritime unions and shipowners.

 

 

"Inspectors are part of the crew role," stressed the Director in a letter sent a few days ago to Vicente Santantonio, Director General of Human Resources of the Undersecretariat of Fisheries. The inspectors reject this idea and maintain that they are "state workers", while they continue to ask for greater guarantees.

 

In the letter, to which this medium had access, Pratti described the group of local inspectors as "minority". But in the last draws the ships that set sail from Mar del Plata did so freed from controls. This was the case of the fishing boats Santa Bárbara, Promac, Ribazón Inés, Don Natalio and Virgen María.

 

 

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