- Title: PERU: Peru slashes commercial fishing quotas as runs plummet
- Date: 9th November 2012
- Summary: LIMA, PERU (RECENT) (REUTERS) HUNDREDS OF FISHING BOATS DOCKED IN PORT FISHERMEN ON BOAT FISHERMEN MENDING NETS FISHING BOAT LEAVING PORT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FISHERMAN FELIX CHACON SAYING: "Commercial fishing has robbed the sea of all its species." FISHERMAN PULLING UP NET TO MEND IT EMPTY FISH SECTION AT STORE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FISHERMAN UNION LEADER VENTURA GON
- Embargoed: 24th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Peru
- Country: Peru
- Topics: Environment,Economy,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA1XD73Y1I47IN779WF7QVATWQP
- Story Text: Peru has slashed its commercial fishing quota as warmer water temperatures and controversial practices deplete stocks of anchovy in one of the world's richest fisheries.
The government cut its quota for this summer's anchovy season by 68 percent to 810,000 tonnes, the smallest allowance in 25 years.
Anchovy is rarely eaten fresh, but is instead dried, ground up and exported as a protein-rich feed for livestock and farmed fish.
At Lima's ports, boats bobbed in the harbour and fisherman mended nets and chatted. The controls could be good news for small fishermen, who accuse the large fisheries of depleting waters.
"Commercial fishing has robbed the sea of all its species," said private fisherman Felix Chacon.
And it's not just the anchovy market. Fish stands around Peru, a nation synonymous with the fish and sea food dish ceviche, are not as plentiful as they have been in the past.
Union fisherman leader Ventura Gonzales said the big fisheries are cutting into runs all along the country's long Pacific coastline.
"Right now we are in a big crisis because the commercial fisheries are depleting the sea from Tumbes to Tacna," Gonzales said.
The stricter quota will allow just enough anchovy to swim into spawning season, reproduce, and keep the size of the fishery more or less stable, according to a report by the government marine institute IMARPE.
The anchovy pulled from Peru's Pacific Ocean is sold as fishmeal that feeds pigs in China and farmed salmon in Europe. It's also squeezed into increasingly popular Omega-3 supplements.
Anchovy populations have shrunk 41 percent since last summer and is 28 percent smaller than the average of the past 12 years, IMARPE says.
Peru's Production Minister Gladys Trevino explained the quota, which will be put in place for the November to February fishing season.
"The vessel for IMARPE, which is our institution that does the scientific work of analysing and evaluating the Peruvian sea's biomass, has given us results indicating we have to be very careful while setting the quotas. That's why we are have cut back the volume of fishing by 68 percent for this second season in 2012. We have had to cut back and that means a total of 810 tonnes that will be available for commercial fishing. The reasons are because of humans."
First, young anchovy catches and these fish being thrown back has probably caused the absence of biomass that IMARRPE is finding and second, the arrival of the Kelvin waves is affecting conditions," Trevino said.
Three Kelvin waves - the warm equatorial swells that stretch hundreds of miles across - shored up on Peru's coast between May and September, IMARPE said, and it predicts two more by the end of the year. Kelvin waves signal El Nino seasons, but Trevino said they aren't expecting the weather phenomenon to have a strong impact this year.
"This year, as opposed to 2011, we have had warm water coming in, but it has not had the impact on the ocean that could cause what is known as an intense El Nino," Trevino added.
IMARPE said Peru is experiencing the effects of a mild "El Nino" and that the warm waters that the climatological phenomenon brings produced a mass die-off of anchovy earlier this year. El Nino phenomena have been linked to extreme weather globally.
Meanwhile, some are predicting an ensuing battle over the quota.
Roberto Vieira, a businessman who works with the fishing industry, said the government can expect strikes and protests from commercial fisherman.
"If the government's position of not listening and not reflecting continues on this important issue, the measures of force are going to spread along the entire waterfront. There are going to be strikes. There are going to be protests from the fisherman's unions. The boats aren't going to go out fishing. That means the fisherman are going to be marooned. Their families will be hurt. The situation is very complicated. I think commercial fisheries, since they have already exceeded their quota, are going to appeal to local and international courts," he said.
IMARPE says that industrial fishermen at times return young fish they catch unintentionally back to the sea to avoid fines the government has set to try to protect them. The fish are already dead by the time they are thrown back into the water.
Patricia Majluf, the former minister of fisheries and who now heads up a university think-tank specialising in the industry, said illegal fishing is a major problem.
"We have to control illegal fishing to avoid having that on top of the legal fishing. It's out of control, and it's no the same. It's having fishing two or three times larger. We have to take strict measures of control right now to avoid this impact on the population.
If not they are not going to recover," she said.
And private fisherman Juan Chauca applauded the government's efforts.
"This measure the minister has taken is very good because it's not going to affect the small fisherman. In the contrary, it's going to help them, and the commercial fisheries need to follow the rules because they are depriving the sea," he said.
Peru is the world's top fishmeal exporter, producing about a third of worldwide supply. Last year it shipped abroad more than $2 billion in fishmeal and fish oil.
Anchovy prefer the cold waters of the nutrient-rich Humboldt current, which is home to a fifth of the world's fish stocks and flows northward from Chile to Peru. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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