Peru’s Production Ministry (PRODUCE) has opened the anchovy fishing season for the south region and established a capture limit of 435,000 metric tons (MT).
The country divides its anchovy fishing areas into two regions – south and north-central, with different capture limits and seasons set for each one. The announcement for the south region launch comes just before the 15 August closing for the center-north region, which has had what industry experts consider a successful season, approaching 100 percent of the 2.41 MT capture limit established by PRODUCE.
The close for the south region season will be 31 December or whenever the capture limit is reached, whichever comes first.
PRODUCE Minister José Salardi Rodriguez, who was appointed a month ago by Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra, said the extraction of anchovy smaller than that defined by the law cannot surpass 10 percent of the total catchment, with Peru’s Sea Institute (Imarpe) – a specialized technical agency of PRODUCE that advises the state on marine conservation issues – in charge of inspecting and controlling landings.
During the previous north-central season, Imarpe conducted a biological-fishery expedition survey of anchovy that confirmed juveniles reached 97.8 percent in number and 78.9 percent in weight.
That finding led PRODUCE to declare a premature close mid-January to the anchovy fishing season, following heated protests from the country’s local fishermen over what they argued was a failure by the ministry to protect the country’s anchovy resources. During that season, firms caught only a fraction of the 2.7 million MT limit established by PRODUCE for the north-central region.
Photo courtesy of La Sociedad Nacional de Pesquería (SNP)
