This Monday, April 29, marks 40 days since the fishing trawler Tai An , from the Fuegian company Prodesur SA .; moored in the port of Ushuaia, after being infracted for fishing in a reserve area and with a permit that had expired since 2020. The National Fisheries Secretariat, as the enforcement authority , “momentarily” disqualified his Fishing certificate.
In its warehouses, it loads 175 tons of young individuals of toothfish, which it caught in a restricted sector of the South Atlantic, bordering the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego.
The company that owns the ship was denounced by its competitors: Argenova, Estremar and Pesantar . The Tai An could have caught up to 5 tons of toothfish “incidentally”, or as an unsought circumstantial fact, and not 175 tons as verified by the national entity.
The fact is aggravated not only by the volume, but also because for four years the vessel has not had an authorization or license to fish for toothfish. Added to this is that the Argentine Naval Prefecture filed a criminal complaint in the Federal Court of Ushuaia, for the alleged crime of environmental damage that the Tai An would have incurred due to excessive fishing of that species .
175 tons at public auction
For the next few days, it is expected that the valuable cargo stored in the warehouse - valued by the national government itself at 2,500,000,000 pesos . At Friday's blue dollar, about 2,370,000 dollars -; be put up for public auction by the National Fisheries Secretariat. Body that sanctioned Prodesur, as officially reported; with the “prohibition of fishing dispatch for 45 days and a fine of $113,400,000, which, having been cleared according to the regulations, is reduced by 50%, and reaches $56,700,000 .” A tiny penalty that represents only about US$53,710 , in the same exchange reference; and it is very possible that it will be less than the cost of paying for mooring the ship in the port of Ushuaia; during these 40 days.
In the short or long term, if there are no bidders, as the owner of the company himself said, Prodesur will buy at auction what it captured irregularly, and will market it at an international value in the main markets of the world.
The different costs of the same toothfish
For the national government, the 175 tons of toothfish have a commercial value of $2,500,000,000. Which establishes a floor per kilogram of $14,285. However, to cite two examples; In the only fishmonger in Ushuaia, the sales value at the counter is $45,000; while in four restaurants on San Martin Avenue in the capital city of Tierra del Fuego, the dish ranges between $19,300 and $32,200, for a 250 gram portion.
It is worth saying that the 175 tons represent 700 thousand servings of food of a product of very high nutritional value, which the National State could perfectly confiscate - as it has done on previous occasions - and distribute in schools and cafeterias in many Argentine cities.
Another fact; The only fishmonger in Ushuaia does not buy from Prodesur or Pesantar . The toothfish he sells comes from Comodoro Rivadavia. One of its officials said that both companies based in Ushuaia do not allocate a sales quota for the Province, but rather that everything they catch is for export.
