The Falkland Islands Fisheries Department (FIFD) recently canceled fishing activities in the territory’s Patagonian squid (Doryteuthis gahi) fishery for the rest of 2024.
FIFD worked in conjunction with local fishing companies in July 2024 to conduct a preseason survey before deciding whether to launch fishery activities for the second season of the year.
The results of that survey came as a surprise: The lower end of the biomass estimate came in below FIFD’s safe stock replenishment threshold of 10,000 metric tons (MT) – the smallest total since 2008. Considering these results, authorities postponed the launch of the fishing season as a precaution, with another survey scheduled for August.
The next survey, completed mid-August, conclusively found an average biomass below the 10,000 MT limit, and the season was called off to protect the squid population from long-term damage.
This news came one year after authorities brought 2023’s second fishing season to a premature close due to signs of a depleted population.
“The early closure of the second [season] last year and the fact that this year’s second season never opened at all means that we are in uncharted and unprecedented times,” Falkland Islands Fishing Companies Association (FIFCA) Executive Secretary James Bates told SeafoodSource. “The Falklands are absolutely reliant on the fishing industry, which is responsible for [around] 60 percent of the GDP.”
According to data from Science.org, the fishery supplies half of the calamari eaten in Europe, for which more than a dozen vessels set sail from Spain each year to the islands, which are located off the coast of Argentina.
As recently as 2022, the fishery brought in catch totals of more than 100,000 MT of the squid, also known as loligo, worth around USD 350 million (EUR 314 million).
The decimated numbers since then may be due to ...
