Fishing emergencies, based on “a decrease in the resource” usually cause certain actions that we will describe; But, these statements are never good, because they imply reactive measures that transfer the costs to the State, which, in general, usually takes charge of the fallen salaries of the private sector, the refinancing of debts, taxes and company fees. The industries, their people and the provincial and municipal State itself are impoverished.
When exceptional situations of a biological nature occur that produce an imbalance in the ecosystem, this type of emergency could be justified. Here we would have to ask if the resource actually decreased or, on the contrary, “is scarce” as some official sources refer; which could be giving rise to thinking that permits have been granted to a greater number of vessels for the same existing resource; That is to say, fishing effort has been increased irresponsibly.
It would be good for the Enforcement Authority to publish the number and details of fishing permits, quotas and authorizations in the last 10 years established in the ports of Río Negro and, more particularly in the last four, and, at the same time, review the landings in that same period, at least of the three main species: common hake, shrimp and squid, which in tons represent 76.7% of the total national exports and 85% of the exported dollars. They inform me that there would be more than one hundred permits and only about 15 vessels would be fishing. But this requires that the relevant authorities specify it.
Upon assuming office on December 10, 2019, someone should have told the governor that the province's fishing policy is terrible in relation to its peers on the maritime coast, since landings in the last 10 years represent between 0.67 % and 1.27% of Argentina's total in the aforementioned species and, even so, it is now forced to declare a fishing emergency for one year; Absolutely insufficient time, if what it is about is a “reduction of the resource” and, perhaps appropriate, to get through this electoral period, if what it is about is that “the resource is scarce” because more permits would have been granted than those that the maximum sustainable catch allows in the Gulf of San Matías. The resource is renewable, but exhaustible. “The multiplication of the fish” that the gospels of Saint Matthew, Mark, Luke and Saint John attribute to Jesus does not apply here. .
It is often said in port areas that “fishing permits” have a certain value in dollars. I am not aware of this, but if so, the holder will be wondering where is the fish?
One also wonders: being the Undersecretary of Fisheries of the Nation a Patagonian man and the current director of the National Institute of Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) originally from Río Negro and former Director of the Almirante Storni Biology Institute (IBMPAS), how do these occur? things? In this regard, the FAO International Code of Responsible Conduct specifies: " States should adopt measures for the conservation, management and sustainable use of fishery resources. These should be based on scientific data and be designed to ensure the sustainability of resources, promoting optimal use and their availability for current and future generations. Nothing of what is happening in Río Negro.
Biologist Raúl González del Storni has referred - among other things - to the fact that “the abundance of biomass was reduced by 75% according to studies carried out in the months of November/December 2022 according to the latest evaluations carried out in 2018”, resulting in inadmissible that four years must pass without adequate investigations and, this researcher also estimates, that “the motivations may be due to the discarding of more than 30% of juvenile species and the discarding due to incidental fishing of third species in the capture of shrimp (bycatch)”, which is absolutely prohibited by current legislation and has been duly communicated in different reports from INIDEP, AGN and FAO, this researcher understanding that “ the fishing effort should be reduced by more than half (NdA: which could be reinforcing the theory that there are more permissions than resources available); regulate shrimp fishing and carry out biological stops ”; measures that will cause unemployment in the port, in the fleet and processing plants, with the consequent demoralization and loss of livelihood of workers and industries.
If these observations by the aforementioned biologist were confirmed, they would indicate an absolutely inefficient administration of the resource and, in my opinion, should cause the displacement of the Río Negro Fisheries Undersecretariat; but, also, to highlight the unsustainable and unsustainable policy carried out by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries of the Nation and the lack of coordination of national policies and intervention in the face of the emerging situation, as provided for by current legislation, the severity of which could have been evident from any basic analysis that it would show symptoms at least in recent years.
From the analysis of the landing statistics of the SSPyA System, these would be showing that, despite the tiny catch in relation to the landings of the rest of the provinces, they would have doubled; Hake catches having fallen by 50% in 2022 compared to 2021 and shrimp catches by 20% in the same period. A fall that continues in the first half of 2023.
What is happening focuses on a lack of a strategic plan from the Province that ends the “restrictive policy” that limits the fleet's fishing to the Gulf of San Matías and potentially to a number of permits granted that exceed the current availability. of the resource and other reasons, among which are excessive discards and use of inappropriate networks; the lack of monitoring of catches, the available stock and adequate control of landings in terms of volume and species.
What some call the “collapse of fishing in Río Negro” is such seriousness and the tip of the iceberg of an extractive fishing policy that sets back 50 years and puts at risk an activity that generates population, industry and employment in Argentine Patagonia.
Dr.
When exceptional situations of a biological nature occur that produce an imbalance in the ecosystem, this type of emergency could be justified. Here we would have to ask if the resource actually decreased or, on the contrary, “is scarce” as some official sources refer; which could be giving rise to thinking that permits have been granted to a greater number of vessels for the same existing resource; That is to say, fishing effort has been increased irresponsibly.
It would be good for the Enforcement Authority to publish the number and details of fishing permits, quotas and authorizations in the last 10 years established in the ports of Río Negro and, more particularly in the last four, and, at the same time, review the landings in that same period, at least of the three main species: common hake, shrimp and squid, which in tons represent 76.7% of the total national exports and 85% of the exported dollars. They inform me that there would be more than one hundred permits and only about 15 vessels would be fishing. But this requires that the relevant authorities specify it.
Upon assuming office on December 10, 2019, someone should have told the governor that the province's fishing policy is terrible in relation to its peers on the maritime coast, since landings in the last 10 years represent between 0.67 % and 1.27% of Argentina's total in the aforementioned species and, even so, it is now forced to declare a fishing emergency for one year; Absolutely insufficient time, if what it is about is a “reduction of the resource” and, perhaps appropriate, to get through this electoral period, if what it is about is that “the resource is scarce” because more permits would have been granted than those that the maximum sustainable catch allows in the Gulf of San Matías. The resource is renewable, but exhaustible. “The multiplication of the fish” that the gospels of Saint Matthew, Mark, Luke and Saint John attribute to Jesus does not apply here. .
It is often said in port areas that “fishing permits” have a certain value in dollars. I am not aware of this, but if so, the holder will be wondering where is the fish?
One also wonders: being the Undersecretary of Fisheries of the Nation a Patagonian man and the current director of the National Institute of Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) originally from Río Negro and former Director of the Almirante Storni Biology Institute (IBMPAS), how do these occur? things? In this regard, the FAO International Code of Responsible Conduct specifies: " States should adopt measures for the conservation, management and sustainable use of fishery resources. These should be based on scientific data and be designed to ensure the sustainability of resources, promoting optimal use and their availability for current and future generations. Nothing of what is happening in Río Negro.
Biologist Raúl González del Storni has referred - among other things - to the fact that “the abundance of biomass was reduced by 75% according to studies carried out in the months of November/December 2022 according to the latest evaluations carried out in 2018”, resulting in inadmissible that four years must pass without adequate investigations and, this researcher also estimates, that “the motivations may be due to the discarding of more than 30% of juvenile species and the discarding due to incidental fishing of third species in the capture of shrimp (bycatch)”, which is absolutely prohibited by current legislation and has been duly communicated in different reports from INIDEP, AGN and FAO, this researcher understanding that “ the fishing effort should be reduced by more than half (NdA: which could be reinforcing the theory that there are more permissions than resources available); regulate shrimp fishing and carry out biological stops ”; measures that will cause unemployment in the port, in the fleet and processing plants, with the consequent demoralization and loss of livelihood of workers and industries.
If these observations by the aforementioned biologist were confirmed, they would indicate an absolutely inefficient administration of the resource and, in my opinion, should cause the displacement of the Río Negro Fisheries Undersecretariat; but, also, to highlight the unsustainable and unsustainable policy carried out by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries of the Nation and the lack of coordination of national policies and intervention in the face of the emerging situation, as provided for by current legislation, the severity of which could have been evident from any basic analysis that it would show symptoms at least in recent years.
From the analysis of the landing statistics of the SSPyA System, these would be showing that, despite the tiny catch in relation to the landings of the rest of the provinces, they would have doubled; Hake catches having fallen by 50% in 2022 compared to 2021 and shrimp catches by 20% in the same period. A fall that continues in the first half of 2023.
What is happening focuses on a lack of a strategic plan from the Province that ends the “restrictive policy” that limits the fleet's fishing to the Gulf of San Matías and potentially to a number of permits granted that exceed the current availability. of the resource and other reasons, among which are excessive discards and use of inappropriate networks; the lack of monitoring of catches, the available stock and adequate control of landings in terms of volume and species.
What some call the “collapse of fishing in Río Negro” is such seriousness and the tip of the iceberg of an extractive fishing policy that sets back 50 years and puts at risk an activity that generates population, industry and employment in Argentine Patagonia.
Dr.
By Agenda Malvinas
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