The Galician fleet that operates in the Malvinas in partnership with companies based on those islands - whose summer season will end at the end of April -; He has already provided almost definitive data on the campaign that began in February after the failure of the second campaign of the previous year; which had to be suspended as there was no loligo squid. Endemic species in South Atlantic waters.
According to Javier Touza, president of the Vigo Shipowners' Cooperative , everything indicates that the catches will exceed 40,000 tons and could even reach 50,000, based on the last ten days in the Malvinas. It will, therefore, be a normal year, although not exceptional.
The volume reported by Touza was what the 17 freezers operating on the islands with an illegal British license expected; the majority of which have an operational base in Beiramar (Vigo). All of them, “belonging to mixed companies domiciled in Puerto Argentino, the capital of the Malvinas”; explained the head of the Galician shipowners' cooperative ; satisfied with the satisfactory end of the campaign.
“We are at the figures we expected, the usual values of other years, with sufficient biomass, which means putting an end to uncertainty,” indicated the “boss” of Vigo shipowners. Adding that this campaign also allows us to face the second of the year with guarantees, based on the data of the biologists, who have verified that the squid have had the usual behavior of other exercises, both in spawning and in their movements. “The scientific reports are very positive, therefore, we can rest assured, because our first challenge was to observe if the 2023 drop had been overcome or was going to have an impact on this first campaign of 2024, but everything has gone well,” he stressed.
The Vigo fleet captures more than 100,000 tons a year between the two operations, in which a thousand sailors participate, the Spanish officers being almost all Galician, and sailors from various origins, highlighting Indonesia. The capture of loligo squid accounts for around 25 percent of sales in the EU of this species, where Vigo vessels, although flying the Malvinas flag, have the benefit of exploiting the fishing ground alone thanks to agreements with partners. British. This will be the case for another 20 years.
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