This Wednesday, 7 June 2012, marked the official launch of the National Defence Committee for Artisanal Fisheries Heritage in the Salon of Honour of the National Parliament in Valparaiso, Chile.
Representing more than 55,000 men and women from Chile’s artisanal fisheries sector, the organization emphatically rejects the privatization of Chile’s fisheries and demands that the fisheries bill drafted by Economy Minister Pablo Longueira be withdrawn, a bill that proposes to hand the bulk of Chile’s individual transferable quotas (ITQs) back to the six industrial fishing companies owned by seven families.
The organization also rejects the agreement reached on September 26 last year between the leaders of two other artisanal fishers’ organizations, CONAPACH and CONFEPACH, and industrial fishing companies about the division of quotas amongst their organizations.
It is contended that such pre-sanctioned conditions in the draft bill pre-empt debate in the Parliament, replacing the parliamentary function and debate by a pact between a small group of companies, leaders and officials.
Opponents of the September 26 agreement also accuse the artisanal fisher organizations of tacitly sanctioning the continued activities of trawlers in the 5-mile artisanal fishing zone and the privatization of Chile’s artisanal fishing heritage.
In his speech, Nelson Estrada, the President of National Defence Committee for the Artisanal Fisheries Heritage, stated that we are the artisanal fishers of Chile, welcome my friends to this act of foundation of the National Defence Committee, where we say to Minister Longueira: the fishery is not for sale.
Senator Carlos Bianchi from the Magallanes Region affirmed that there are 20 opposition senators, 17 from the government and one independent, who strongly support artisanal fisheries
Meanwhile, in the Chamber of Deputies (Chile’s lower house), the Fisheries Committee approved by 10 votes to three the draft fisheries bill. The new bill is designed to replace Chile’s Maximum Catch Limits (ITQ) Law, which entered into force in August 2002 and which will expire at the end of 2012.
This established an administrative system for allocating transferable catch limits (known as LMCAs) to industrial vessel owners. Economy Minister Longueira’s bill proposes to maintain the status quo, where 76 per cent of the quotas will be handed back to the seven families who own Chile’s six large fishing corporations. These corporations have close links, including financial ones, to the Independent Union Party (UDI), of which Economy Minister Pablo Longueira is President.