The last shrimp report generated very good expectations for the 2021 season, abundance of resource, large sizes and an extraordinary concentration in Rawson who gave 22 thousand kilos of catch per hour. However, at the same time the researchers have indicated that it is necessary to be attentive, to closely monitor the operation of the fleet, especially the fresh produce factory on which data are lacking, because an increase in fishing effort could detract from the improvements that have been achieved. 

 

To find out what is the real dimension of what is observed, the parameters to which attention must be paid and the limits that should not be exceeded, Revista Puerto spoke with Paula Moriondo Danovaro, head of the Shrimp Program, and Juan de la Garza, who continues to collaborate in the investigation now from his position as head of the Observer Program. They are the experts who know the Pleoticus muelleri better than anyone, they are the type of biologist who gets his feet wet, who lives with fishermen, businessmen and officials, and based on a great work they have earned the respect of all.

 

 

 

Paula Moriondo Danovaro (PMD): The first thing to say is that it is a specific concentration, part of the shrimp that was not caught in 2019 and 2020 due to the reduction in fishing effort, both due to administrative measures taken by the Council and by the effects of the pandemic and the SOMU strike. These resources are very dependent on the environment that is having benevolent characteristics that help them, but clearly, they respond very quickly to fishing effort. The effort was reduced and the shrimp showed signs of improvement. When they started to increase the effort in 2017, we began to see that there was deterioration in the fishery, so it is evident that it is a resource that responds quickly to fishing effort.

 

Juan de la Garza (JDG): Not only do you have to see the concentration that we found in Rawson, those are very specific data as Paula says, what you have to see is the whole, because it is a single resource and is handled as a single unit. What the shrimp has, especially in the breeding season, is that it clumps too much, it becomes a ball, but you can pass it next to it and have nothing. We did a whole sweep, we were finding and we hit that one, since we are not going to the mark, that gives you an indicator that maybe there is something when you start to expand it, but you have to expand it to the entire area.

 

 

 

JDG: In the past, when the famous Calapa existed, they told you that in high school we did not know how to fish, that our campaigns did not work, because we had zeroes and now the advantage of all the new people who are in CaPeCA, CAPIP, with all those who help in campaigns, is that they understand that zero is a value, that zero matters. The 22,000 kilos per hour is as important as zero.

 

PMD: Something that also matters is the commitment they have with us and the credibility they have for us. What we tell them, they take it, beyond wanting to fish the most profit, they take the information we give them, they understand it and they ask us intelligent questions about the resource, what is coming, what happened, the interrelation we have with them is very good.

 

RP: Did they achieve a kind of co-management?

JDG: It would not exactly be a co-management because decisions are not taken together, here the Federal Fisheries Council (Consejo Federal Pesquero) decides, but there is a very good relationship. You have to think that 20 years ago, a season of 24 thousand tons was the great season, now with a season of 150 thousand tons we are with bare eyes. As Paula said, being an organism with a relatively short life cycle has its advantages and disadvantages, as well as it can grow very fast, so you drop it, the same thing that can happen with squid, what happens with squid is that it has a shorter cycle and external pressure that is unmanageable. Here it is handled internally, that is very important, you can see the decisions made by the authorities relatively quickly and it is positive, in hake you will not see it very quickly. On the other hand, the difference in long-lived fish is that if a cohort fails you, you can have others that can support the fishery and hide the problem a little. On the other hand, not here, where a cohort fails you, you will see it and quickly. In 2005 there was nothing, it was seen that it was going to happen and an important cohort came, at that moment the papers were put in front of everyone, there were many meetings and it was decided to start working in a different way, with prospecting, few ships , they let it grow. The result was that we went from 7 thousand tons in 2005 to 42 thousand in 2006. (continue ...)

 

Author: Karina Fernández/ Revista Puerto | Read the full article by clicking the link here (only available in Spanish)