Chile

Jack mackerel (Trachurus murphiy) is Chile's main fisheries target, and the country's strict species protection programmes and the application of the country's Fishing and Aquaculture Law assures its protection within the Chilean EEZ.

Nevertheless, being a highly migratory species, jack mackerel do not recognise borders or frontiers and as soon as shoals of juvenile jack mackerel swim outside of Chile's EEZ, they become easy prey for the large predating trawl fishing fleets from Spain, Russia, Poland, Cuba, China, North Korea, Vanuatu and other countries.

These over 100 factory trawlers reap the South Pacific Ocean and their trawl nets haul in all kinds of fish, and some do not care if their catch is undersized or an endangered species.

These pirates, at night, dart into Chile's EEZ to continue reaping the sea and then escape into the high seas at dawn, before the Chilean Navy's P-3 patrol aircraft – armed with Harpoon air to sea missiles and bombs - take off from their land based airports to begin their daily work: detecting illegal trawler fleets fishing in Chile's EEZ.

A real menace

“The foreign 'pirate' trawlers are a real menace to jack mackerel", Federico Silva, Chile's National Fishing Society (Sonapesca) chairman told World Fishing.

“After hauling in their trawl nets, the trawler crew selects the best of the catch for onboard processing (freezing and canning) and everything else is processed into fishmeal.

“This way, juvenile jack mackerel and other fish are destroyed before reaching adult stage, being unable to spawn and to allow stocks to grow,” Mr Silva continued.

"Once these factory trawlers fill their cold stores and holds, they rendezvous with cargo vessels on the high seas to unload their cargo and return to the fishing grounds to continue reaping the sea. The cargo ships then head for their home ports - loaded with 'black' fish and discharge their loads – with false declarations of origin of the fish in their books - and return to the SPO for another load,” Mr Silva said.

Protective nations seek regulation

The main South Pacific Rim Nations, such as Australia, New Zealand and Chile, have co-sponsored the creation of a regulatory body: the South Pacific Fisheries Regulation Organization, SPFRO, which is also backed by Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama.

Nevertheless, this project is facing bad weather.

The Bio Bio Industrial Fishing Association, ASIPES, is annoyed with the double standard the Chilean Government is showing and wants to withdraw from talks over the SPRFO.

The reason is clear: Chilean authorities issued a decree which banned predating factory vessels from Chilean ports, either for unloading fish or taking on fuel, water or food while they refuse to sign agreements which allow authorities to monitor their vessels.

Nevertheless, Chinese, North Korean, Russian, Polish, Vanuatu, Cuban and Spanish factory vessels continue to reap the seas, filling their holds with juveniles and not allowing inspectors to check their holds, but corrupt Chilean officials allow them to enter Chilean ports as if at home.

Rodrigo Sarquis, chairman of the Bio Bio Industrial Fishing Association, talked to World Fishing.

He was indignant and said, “The corrupt Government clearly shows a double standard. They say that they want a SPRFO but they bow to predators and allow them free access to our ports when by law they are not allowed into Chilean ports.

“A recent Government decree forbids the entry into Chilean ports for unloading fish, taking on water, food or supplies or crew changes, nevertheless authorities are ignoring this decree and allow Chinese, Polish, Spanish and other factory trawlers which refuse to abide by conservation measures into the country's ports.

“This is a disgrace and as the measure was an effective way of punishing predators, we were quite happy, but now the predators just laugh at us and continue to reap the sea indiscriminately,” Mr Sarquis concluded.

Emblematic fisheries species

One of Chile's emblematic fisheries species – exported mainly to US markets where it is known as Chilean seabass – is Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides).

This highly prized fish used to be very abundant, not only in Chilean waters but also in the South Atlantic Ocean, off the Argentine shelf and also South Africa's West coast.

Average landing size of the species used to be around 40 kilos per fish in the late nineties, but overfishing has caused a drastic reduction in in landing size, where average fish size over the last three years is only 2.1 kilos per fish.

In Chile, this fishery takes place south of Parallel 47ºS and began in 1991 as a research fishery for one year in order to determine stock size.

In 1993 the Chilean Government began to offer individual fishing quotas for Patagonian toothfish.

Peak landings occurred in 1992 with 17,778 tonnes, but these later dropped to a very low 1,283 tonnes in 2004. Landings increased to 3,070 tonnes in 2008 but average fish size was extremely small, only 1.47 kilos per fish.

The Chilean industrial fleet fishes for Patagonian toothfish between September and February every year and then fishes for Southern hake (Merluccius australis) for the rest of the year.

The United States is Chile's main market for Patagonian toothfish, where it is sold as fresh fillets, which fetch between US$15 and $18 per kilo in large restaurant and supermarket chains.

The product is shipped by air from Chile to Los Angeles, Miami and New York – usually by scheduled air carrier Polar Air – and importers are able to boast a record of freshness: 15 hours from boat to table, which makes Chilean seabass one of the preferred fish dishes available.

“Green” environmental organisations had campaigned in order to convince consumers not to buy Chilean seabass, but to no avail.

Pacific toothfish will now be farmed

Triggered by the ever decreasing Pacific toothfish landings, Puerto Montt's La Araucana Aquaculture College is currently going ahead with a revolutionary project for farming the species.

Professor Alberto Reyes, marine biologist and project director, told World Fishing: “All wild fish can become accustomed to life in captivity. Our first task was to obtain adult females in the sea. Pacific toothfish dwell in oceanic waters at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, so females were placed in land-based tanks where they become accustomed to surface conditions and after that they spawn.

“Our aim was to produce juveniles of 2-5g weight from ova incubated in controlled systems.

“As our research with Southern hake proved that benthonic fish can become accustomed to factors such as lighting and pressure conditions, the same is happening with Patagonian toothfish,” Professor Reyes explained.

The Chilean State has funded one million US dollars toward this project and La Araucana Aquaculture College will provide the remaining US$800,000 the project will eventually cost.

Hopefully, many jobless fishermen will be employed by this project, and also in the farming of flounder, also an endangered species.

Coastal fishermen up in arms again

Once again, Chile's artisan or coastal fishermen are up in arms against the Government, both due to quota reductions and lack of Government help during this fishing crisis.

Added to the reduced fishing quotas for coastal fishermen, we have to consider that after jack mackerel, common hake (Merluccius spp) is another important fishery, which is banned between 15 August and 20 September.

“What will we do to feed our families during this period?” asked Cosme Caracciolo, the secretary general of the coastal fishermen's union.

“This measure is applied all over the country and leaves over 35,000 coastal fishermen jobless. We feel that our source of income is at risk. Before the ban we were given the short end of the stick when industrial fishing fleet was allotted 22,700 tonnes of hake as TAC for the year and we only received 700 tonnes. Of course we completed our miserable quota in just one month. There is nothing left for us. In order to fish for other resources we would have to acquire other gear and we just don't have the money for this extra expense. We 'poor' people do not receive any help from the State,” he added.

Pro-Communist Senator Nelson Avila told World Fishing: “The current fishing policy is leading this activity straight towards debacle, total destruction. Chileans are a coastal community and are used to eating fish, but the landings fetch a better price in other countries so the big fishing companies prefer to export their catches, mainly processed as canned or frozen products. We see no interest in the State official fishing authorities in changing the situation.”

As WF goes to press, the proposed modifications to the country's Fishing and Aquaculture Law are being discussed in Congress, with 155 modification proposals presented to date.

Senator Avila continued: “One of the main issues we have not been able to agree on is the issue of permanent concessions offered to the salmon industry, which has our coastal fishermen up in arms.

“They have rioted in Iquique, Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Talcahuano, Puerto Montt, Castro, Quellón and Punta Arenas. They will continue their protests until the Government withdraws the proposals which hurt their interests,” he concluded.

Japan Chile's main fishing export destination

According to Chile's National Fishing Service, Sernapesca, Japan headed the list of Chile's fishing export destinations in June, with 32% of total exports, followed by the United States of America with 21%, China with 10% and Brazil with 4.6%.

Total destination countries reached 101 in June, nine of which fetched 82% of the revenues. Japan and the United States together received 52% of the country's fishing exports, followed by China whose imports of Chilean fishing products – mainly fishmeal – grew 54% in June, followed by Brazil and Spain.

Economic groups

As for the value of Chilean fishing exports to the main destination groups of countries, APEC countries (excluding NAFTA nations) paid US$661.82m (46% of total), European Union totalled US$187.4m (13.7%), Mercosur US$74.7m (5.5%) and EFTA US$5.1m (0.4%).

As for the individual countries with greatest growth in Chilean fishing imports, we can mention Venezuela (34.5%), Nigeria (23.9%) and Sri Lamka (11.1%).