Jumbo flying squid, Dosidicus gigas. (Photo: Stock File)

CALAMASUR joins SFP’s initiative to protect giant squid

PERU
Friday, April 27, 2018, 02:00 (GMT + 9)

The Committee for the Sustainable Management of the Southern Pacific Jumbo Flying Squid (CALAMASUR) has committed to support the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) Target 75 program, which aims to have 75 per cent of sustainable seafood production by 2020 or to achieve improvements towards sustainability.

The agreement through which CALAMASUR makes its commitment to make efforts to protect the giant squid (Dosidicus gigas) was signed by its president Alfonso Miranda Eyzaguirre and SFP founder and CEO Jim Cannon at the Peruvian pavilion at Seafood Expo Global, held in Brussels.

Miranda highlighted that this resource is the species that sustains artisanal fishing in Peru and has great importance in Chile, Ecuador, and Mexico.

"Therefore, we must exhaust all efforts to ensure its sustainable exploitation, as well as an adequate study of its biology and strict control over fleets from distant-water countries that could adversely affect the balance of the giant squid population with activities contrary to what the FAO Responsible Fisheries Code of Conduct advises,” he added.

Earlier this year, SFP released a global sector report for squid which said that less than 1 per cent of global squid production could be classified as sustainable or improving toward sustainable.

For his part, Cannon called CALAMASUR’s commitment to the Target 75 goal significant, since it represents producers in Peru, Chile, and Ecuador, whose fisheries comprise more than 20 percent of global squid production alone.

“CALAMASUR’s support represents a significant piece of global squid production,” Cannon said. “We hope that the remainder of the global squid industry will take note of and follow the fine example CALAMASUR is setting here,” Cannon concluded.
 

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