argentine hake
fishery improvement partnership
SFP is supporting the work of local NGO, CeDePesca on improving the Argentine hake fishery. We develop buyer and international supplier interest, and help fund CeDePesca’s work with the catchers. CeDePesca and its industry partners, who represent more than 40 percent of the total hake quota, are pushing the Argentine government for greater transparency and control, surveillance and monitoring. Efforts to date have garnered media coverage and some success in securing government promises to strengthen controls and conservation efforts.
The Argentine hake fishery has been through the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) pre-assessment process and the industry sector is currently discussing plans to improve the fishery such as reproductive biomass being under the limit level, lack of enforcement, and the need to monitor the impacts of the bottom trawling and by-catch.
In November 2008, the Federal Fishery Council of Argentine adopted several measures to improve the controls. These measures include:
- Reforming fishing gear to minimize discards;
- Requiring skippers to prepare accurate landing reports;
- Tasking the coastguard to cover the fishing zones effectively;
- Increasing on-board observers coverage during fishing trips by 8 percent;
- Establishing 2008 and 2009 TACs based on scientific recommendations;
- Installing on board video cameras and cross information system along the value chain (under discussion)