This assessment will be carried out in the northern and southern areas, allocating two effective fishing days in each. After overcoming a ten-month conflict, the fishing sector is eagerly awaiting the start of the season. According to Revista Puerto, processing plants have already begun to call up staff.

 

 

Thanks to an agreement between the business sector and the sailors' union, months of tension were finally brought to an end, allowing commercial prospecting for the Pleoticus muelleri species to begin yesterday, Monday. Despite the inflexible position of the national leadership of SOMU, which did not endorse the agreement signed by the Rawson delegates, the majority of sailors supported the pact and joined the crews to begin the evaluation of the resource.

 

A highlight of this process was the union, for the first time in years, of the entire business sector of vessels operating in Puerto Rawson. This cohesion made it possible to present a unified offer on the value of the species, a crucial measure to unblock the conflict that threatened the start of the harvest.

 

 

The workers themselves also demonstrated commitment and common sense, overcoming the SOMU leadership and promoting the signing of the agreement, aware of the importance of ensuring the season after the negative precedent of last year, when the industry only operated for 45 days, severely impacting the economy of the industry and the income of the crew.

 

The agreement reached between the SOMU of Rawson and the CAFACH establishes the value of the kilo of shrimp for salary calculation at $1,200, in addition to a 209% increase in fixed items. To resolve the controversy over the inflationary update arising from the October 2023 agreement, the payment of a 20% bonus on the salaries of the first months of this year was agreed.

 

 

 

Despite resistance from the national leadership of SOMU, which even involved the Rawson delegation, the sailors prepared to begin prospecting, with the agreement already approved by the provincial labor authority, which gives it full legal validity.

 

The departure of the boats aroused satisfaction and enthusiasm on the docks. During the first two days, the fleet of twenty boats, made up of 16 yellow fleet boats and 4 artisanal boats, will work in the southern zone. Subsequently, monitoring will move to the northern zone, where ten boats will operate in each of the two sub-zones, also for two days of effective fishing.

 

 

With the information gathered by observers on board, the Chubut Fisheries Secretariat will decide the date and area of ​​the official start of the shrimp fishing season in jurisdictional waters. The processing plants have begun to call up their temporary and seasonal staff, in anticipation that the harvest may begin at the beginning of November, as anticipated by the sector.