Argentine Hake
Argentine hake (southern stock)
Fishery Improvement Project
Last Updated 21 February 2012
Species: Argentine Hake (Merluccius hubbsi)
FIP Scope/Scale: Fishery level
Fishery location: For map see: Argentine hake - southern stock
Sustainability Information:
See Summary tab in the link above
See Summary tab in the link above
Date Launched: 2007
FIP Stage: 4, FIP is delivering improvement in policies and practices
Current Improvement Recommendations:
- Implement a recovery plan
- Improve transparency on records
- Improve the robustness of Argentina’s fisheries science
- Increase reproductive biomass (including reducing bycatch).
Background:
Argentine hake is a bottom-trawling fishery which produces around 200,000 tonnes, making it one of the most important hake fisheries in the world. It is an export-oriented fishery, with primary markets in Brazil (31%), Italy (11%), Spain (9%), the US (8%), and Ukraine (6%) (see Exportaciones Pesqueras: comportamiento de los principales mercados 2011 (PDF), p. 9).
At the time the FIP began, the fishery faced significant problems:
- Stock was below its biological limit and spawning stock biomass was under the target reference point
- The actual catch was over the advised total allowable catch (TAC)
- Catchers were landing more juveniles than adults and refused to use devices that would let juveniles escape the trawl nets
- Bycatch of juvenile hake by the Argentine shrimp fishery resulted in 30,000 to 40,0000 tonnes of discard each year
- There was neither a recovery plan in place to deal with these issues nor any effective monitoring and enforcement of regulations.
SFP is collaborating on this FIP with CeDePesca, a South American NGO whose mission is to work toward socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable fisheries. CeDePesca has been involved with the Argentine hake fishery for over 10 years.
CeDePesca has worked closely for years with Alpesca and other local companies to make progress. An MSC pre-assessment was completed in 2008 and since then, private companies have worked with CeDePesca on improvement efforts. However, the fishery still faces great difficulties and corruption within the control system remains one of the major barriers to achieving sustainability.
FIP Objectives:
The objectives of the improvement efforts for this fishery are:
- Implement a recovery plan
- Improve transparency of records
- Improve the robustness of Argentina’s fisheries science
- Increase reproductive biomass (including reducing bycatch).
FIP Participants:
Alpesca, Yuken, CeDePesca
Progress:
During the last 3 years, some steps have been taken toward improvements in the water:
- The main strength of this fishery is a huge and well-enforced non-trawling zone, covering almost half of the fishing grounds, protecting breeding and feeding.
- Transparency of stock assessments and fisheries statistics has improved, with up-to-date landings information on the website. A peer review has been contracted with FAO.
- The enforcement of EU Rule 1005/2008 against IUU has helped to reduce underreporting, although many problems remain.
Other recently implemented measures could address some of the troubles of this fishery and point toward recovery. For instance, on-board video cameras will be mandatory starting 1 January 2011, which should help enforce selectivity measures already adopted (on both the hake and shrimp fleets) and minimize discards.
In addition, changes in the assessment methodology assume that underreporting and discards would be fully solved in 2010, and the TAC has been set higher than in previous years, following National Institute of Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) maximum recommendation. The assumption was only partially achieved, and the fact that the 2010 actual landings did not reach this new higher TAC recommendation is cause for concern. After the FAO consultant's review of the assessment method we will know how the TAC relates to the scientific advice for 2011.
Although 2011 surveys register some increase, spawning biomass is still under the limit reference point (450,000 tonnes). While managers set a non-precautionary TAC for 2010, 2011, and 2012, and research cruises restarted in 2011 after three years of inactivity from 2008 through 2010, some important hurdles remain for this fishery:
- Loopholes remain in monitoring and control of catches both at sea and on the docks.
- Juvenile fish predominate in the catch, because more mature stocks are depleted.
- Recruitments are still poor and the current exploitation strategy doesn´t allow many fish to reach maturity.
- A policy is in place requiring juvenile protection devices for gears, but it is not enforced.
- Interaction with the shrimp fishery, which doesn´t use hake escape devices, mostly occurs in provincial waters of Chubut and Santa Cruz (San Jorge Gulf), and negatively affects the juvenile population. However, the juvenile hake population benefitted from the fact that, in 2011, the shrimp fishery operated mostly out of San Jorge Gulf, within federal waters.
FIP Contact: If you would like more information about the FIP or wish to support the FIP, please contact SFP
