A survey by the secretariat for fishing affairs and aquaculture of Chile revealed 48% of the country’s main 33 fisheries suffer either from over-exploitation or have been exhausted, showing a dramatic deterioration from 2013.
The outcome of the study, with collapsed fisheries growing from three to eight as one former fully exploited fishing grounds and four overexploited fisheries met the end of their tether, prompted the government to declare industry joint action is now urgent.
The situation is critical, said secretary Raul Sunico in a communique sent to Undercurrent News, it is a challenge that the government cannot tackle on its own, we need a commitment from all sectors involved in fishing, from fishers to consumers, who must accept that some species will be difficult to find in the regulated market.
According to official data, eight fisheries have collapsed, eight more are overexploited and five remained uncatalogued, as there is insufficient information about their state.
Among the fisheries in a worse situation today than in 2012 are southern hake and three-fin hake in region X to region XII, which were placed in the over-exploited category. In the center-south zone, anchovy, golden conger eel and stonefish fell into the exhausted range after efforts for their recovery proved unsuccessful.
We have to focus our work on how best to stop fisheries’ downfall because that is the only way in which we can ensure a sustainable future for fishing companies, Sunico remarked.
The national fishing companies organization SNP had already last year warned against the government auctioning too many fishing licences in areas where it was known biomass of certain species were under risk.
The report included technical information from annual global total catch quotas and biological temporary fishing bans affecting Chile, and figures from the institute of promotion of the fishing industry IFOP, and the foundation of the investigation of the fishing industry FIP.
Undercurrent news