Peru Slashes Commercial Fishing Quota Amid Climate Change Fears
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Peru, the world’s top fishmeal exporter, has cut its commercial fishing quota for anchovy by 68 percent this year, reported Reuters on Thursday, amid concerns that warmer water temperatures and controversial fishing practices were causing a dramatic reduction of the nation’s anchovy stock, which is about a-fifth of the world’s total.
Peru, the world’s top fishmeal exporter, has cut its commercial fishing quota for anchovy by 68 percent this year, reported Reuters on Thursday, amid concerns that warmer water temperatures and controversial fishing practices were causing a dramatic reduction of the nation’s anchovy stock, which is about a-fifth of the world’s total.
On Tuesday, the Peruvian government’s marine institute, IMARPE, reported that the nation’s anchovy population, in the nutrient-rich Humboldt Current off the Peruvian coast, had shrunk by 41 percent since last summer; while the present figure is also 28 percent smaller than the average of the last 12 years.
IMARPE added that a mild “El Nino” earlier this year had caused a mass die-off of anchovy, resulting in fewer young fish and a weaker spawning season.
Peru, who exports more than $2 billion in fishmeal and fish oil, said that the newly imposed quota – the smallest allowance in 25 years – would allow just enough anchovy into swim into spawning season and keep the size of the fishery more or less stable.
However, the government also warned that if warmer water temperatures were to hit the Peruvian coast from November to February, as IMARPE has predicted, it may be forced to impose even tighter restrictions to maintain the fish stock.
[quote]”Technically we should have said the quota is zero. That’s how bleak the panorama is,” said Peru’s Production Minister Gladys Trevino to reporters.[/quote]Related: The Dangerous New Era Of Climate Change: Jeffrey Sachs
Related: Ensuring Sustainable Development Is A Matter Of Human Decency: Jeffrey Sachs
Related: Plenty of Fishes in the Sea? Think Again.
Anchovy caught off the Peruvian coast is often dried, ground up and exported as a protein-rich feed for livestock and farmed fish. Peru produces about a third of the world’s total fishmeal supply, which are commonly sold to feed pigs in China or farmed salmon in Europe.
Since last year, the price of fishmeal has risen by 20 percent – more than double what it was just one decade ago. Analysts expect the quota for the November to February fishing season to push the price of fishmeal up even further, which will affect the cost of other food types worldwide.
Related: World Teetering on Brink of Global Food Crisis
Related: Could Rising Food Prices Lead to Another Crisis?
Related: World Bank Promises Action To Counter Rising Food Prices
“But we can’t just blame what’s going on in the environment,” told Arturo Gonzales, director of the sustainable fishing advocacy group CeDePesca, to Reuters.
[quote]”There are a lot of questions about how much this is driven by the industry’s discarded catches, and that’s something we can control,” he said.[/quote]IMARPE also said that industrial fishermen at times return already-dead young fish back to the sea in order to avoid fines the government has set to try to protect them. The fishing interest group, the National Fishery Society, was unavailable to comment on the new quota, though they had recently set a new rule pushing large vessels away from shallow-water spawning areas.
The regulation, reserves the first five miles from the coast for smaller fishermen and the five-10 mile zone for medium-sized boats. Though the move is expected to cost Peru’s anchovy exports to drop by about $300 million, it will also reduce the amount of young anchovy being caught.
