Giant squid capture. (Photo: Sebastian Bavestrello/YouTube)

ASIPES insists on manual giant squid catch parliamentary project unconstitutionality

Association of Fishing Industry (ASIPES) president Macarena Cepeda Godoy expressed regret about the approval of the new indications in the Committee of Fisheries of the Chamber of Deputies of the project regulating giant squid capture with hand line.

According to the executive of the fishing association of the south central zone of the country, it is a pity that the Chamber of Deputies has taken this step to remove the access to this important resource to the industrial fishing activity.

"In the session of the Fisheries Committee last Wednesday, undersecretary Eduardo Riquelme again pointed out the inconvenience of approving this motion, given that this type of decisions are in principle attributions of a technical nature of the Undersecretariat itself and should not be treated in a parliamentary or legislative discussion. A few weeks ago he was emphatic in pointing out that the project is unconstitutional, but parliamentarians prefer not to listen," explained Cepeda.

ASIPES president regretted that the political class has not listened to the approaches of the industrial sector and has approached artisanal fishing, "without understanding that they are different realities and with different problems."

The association reiterates that it is urgent to understand that artisanal boats can not fish for giant squid throughout the year due to poor weather conditions in the south of the country, so the continuous supply that is produced today between the industrial fleet and the artisanal sector allows the operation of the processing plants.

"Forcing us to fish for giant squid by hand is like leaving the big mining industry working with shovels or the foresters cutting trees with an ax," said the executive of the industrial fishing sector.

In this regard, she stressed that leaving the giant squid only for the artisanal sector will deprive of continuous operation of the industrial plants. This will have an impact on the loss of international supply contracts, the precariousness of the permanent work that currently exists in the processing plants and uncertainty regarding other parliamentary motions aimed at gradually further cutting industrial fishing.

For this reason, Cepeda said that her sector hopes that legislative sanity prevails, that the Government assumes its role and retakes its powers in legislative and fisheries administration matters.

"We are convinced of the value of democratic discussion in Parliament, but based, in the case of fisheries, on technical and scientific statements, which allow a real sustainable development of the activity," she concluded.

At present, in the Biobío Region, 2,500 people who work in plants and fleets depend on this resource and 50 per cent of them are women on whom their households depend.

Related articles:

- Chamber of Deputies approves bill regulating giant squid capture
- Artesanal sector calls for support to eliminate trawling in giant squid catch
- Bill regulating giant squid capture splits industrial and artisanal sectors

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