Image: stockfile FIS

Illex squid without great prospects at the end of the fishing season

Entering the final part of the illex 2023 squid harvest, the numbers, although improving, do not meet expectations, much less a decent year. Little squid, small, very dispersed and without concentrations.

The reality indicates that for the moment, although the volumes of daily catches have improved in recent days, they do not meet expectations, much less finish a harvest similar to that of the previous year, neither in size nor in volume.

Photos: Stockfile FIS

During the first 10 days of April, the average squid caught per jigger vessel was approximately 1800kg/day, while this last week, something more appeared, and led some vessels to reach 13000kg/day; being the outstanding sizes of commercial value but small, classified as S.

Photo: Stockfile FIS -->

We communicated with an experienced captain, and he told us “we are finishing the second trip, it is not a good year. The squid that was caught at the beginning of January was fairly large. We had hope in the north, but the reality is that there are very scattered concentrations of small squid. The same thing happens to all of us. Note that there were several ships that came to call at Mar del Plata and Deseado, just to make supplies. The tides are extended and there are no boats that fish more than 20tn/day, if it is given to them. This is not a good year for squid fishing." With the vehemence and certainty of someone who runs a jigger ship, words fail, everything has been said; This will not be a good season as we had been predicting in the early days of this harvest.

An important piece of information is also the behavior of the foreign fleet, the same, for more than 15 days they have been leaving the area.

Some ships for repairs bound for the port of Busan, crossing through southern Africa towards the Indian Ocean; while others began long ago to leave the area through the Strait of Magellan. Which indicates that it has not been a good season either for the fleet of Taiwan and South Korea with permission from the Malvinas or for those who operate on the northern edge of mile 200 with the Chinese flag.

According to data from the Falkland Island Fisheries Department, in Malvinas, in the 2022 harvest the catches were 73,053 tons and this year they barely reached 45,000 tons.

Source: Stockfile FIS / Falkland Island Fisheries Department

A regular harvest, with few concentrations of very dispersed squid and mostly small, size SS and S.

On the side of the plants, they have exceededly fulfilled the reprocessing on land, which for reasons of demand and scarcity of raw material, what is processed meets well above the 20% required by the authority.

Source: CAPECA

The numbers of the squid have also discouraged the overflow that occurs in ports such as Deseado, Madryn and Mar del Plata, where the cooperatives for the unloading and assembly of vessels have also suffered this decline with significant drops and around 25% less, that is to say , less resource and much less work. A harvest that entered the second final half where the days of each tide lengthened and much more the concern of those who wait a year to make a difference that was not such.

Source: CAPA

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