Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

The performance of the shrimp calls for the end of the season

ARGENTINA
Tuesday, September 21, 2021, 16:10 (GMT + 9)

It is the crew themselves who are amazed at what they are doing. They drag up to more than two hours to collect fifty crates and ships with almost empty holds arrive at port. The closure must be decided by the Federal Fisheries Council that meets just next week

That it is time to close the shrimp season and everyone says it, although the authorities take their time. The Federal Fisheries Council did not meet this week, it will only do so next week and then it will decide when the fishery will close. Unless observer reports reveal bycatch data, both for hake and juvenile or reproductive shrimp, the fishing areas remain open.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

The scenario seems complex, but it is unknown what was the last information that INIDEP reported on the status of the resource, since the Councilors, last week, did not publish the minutes of the meeting and it was not possible to have access to the scientific reports presented by the Shrimp Program. It is probable that seven days ago they have already warned the authorities about the decline in abundance, but we do not know because the information was withheld.

In this last week the fleet was sweeping the bottom of the subareas enabled for fishing, both in the north and in the south. Some managed to fish and others caught practically nothing, the scenario was fluctuating and the hourly yields fell to very low levels in all cases. It only helps, in this scenario, that the number of boats was reduced by decision of the companies; Out of more than two hundred ships, there are now ninety double-rig shrimp trawlers ('tangoneros')reporting.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

Today the activity consists of looking for shrimp for more than an hour, time allowed to preserve the ecosystem and the quality of the resource. They come to trawl more than two hours and load about fifty crates of shrimp per set, the rest is discarded: it can be fauna and flora of the seabed, hake or small shrimp, the sailors report at the foot of the dock.

"What we are doing is mischievous, we dragged more than two hours and put together twenty, thirty or fifty boxes at most, all crushed, but they still peel it," says the crew of a weetfish vessel on the dock of Puerto de Madryn. "I do not know if we will go out again or the season is over, we are waiting to be notified, it depends on the company, but we are dragging a lot and we rescued little, a lot of garbage," he concludes.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

The activity on the dock provides a photo of the result of the operation at sea. Few ships were unloaded last week, such as the 'Cristo Redentor', a tall weetfish vessel that carries 2,400 boxes and arrived with only 400. It is not the only one that reflects the shortage.

Patagonia, another tall weetfish trawler that carries 2,600, brought 316 crates. The 'Madre Divina' was luckier, although she did not complete the   refrigerated hold either, she brought 1,500 crates out of the 2,600 that she can carry. The only freezer that arrived yesterday did so with less than half her storage capacity; however, there were four freezers that were being assembled.

Photo: courtesy Revista Puerto

Despite low yields, poor practices, and late season experience, everyone is getting ready to rush out to the fishing grounds, before someone calls out. They know what they are going to find out to sea, a scarce and dispersed resource. There are ships like the Igloo I that after two days, have reported almost no capture.

The most logical thing, by virtue of the economic and social magnitude that this resource has for Argentina, would be that this was not happening. But it happens and it is not known when the season will finally close. The decision is likely to be delayed until the end of this week, when the Federal Fisheries Council meets again and, only then, ends the 2021 campaign in national waters.

Source: Revista Puerto (article available only in spanish)

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