Both Argentina and Peru have been hard hit by apparent effects of overfishing, while Chilean seafood exports suffers from unfavourable exchange rates.
Argentina’s fisheries yields showed a dramatic drop of almost one-third in the first two months of the year, new data from the country’s fisheries and aquaculture department indicated.
Hake catches were the biggest during the period – 16,850 tonnes out of a total 50,749 tonnes – still a 19.1 percent drop compared to the first two months of 2010 (total catches decreased 30.4 percent).
Squid, the number two catch, showed the most dramatic downturn; 5,696 tonnes was a 69.8 percent decrease from last year.
Both the government and environmental groups have expressed concerns in the past that overfishing could affect overall yields of fish and other marine animals in Argentine waters.
On their side, fishing industry lobbies have complained of lack of government incentives amid aggressive competition from foreign fishing fleets.
Much of those discussions have focused on the squid situation in general, and that just outside the Argentine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEC, 200 nautical miles) in particular.
Authorities and environmentalists have accused the industry of indiscriminate fishing, while the industry has blamed foreign fishing fleets, often working under licenses from the Falkland Islands, the contested group of South Atlantic islands Argentine and Great Britain fought a war over in 1982.
An industry representative recently claimed that around 17 Chinese and 15 South Korean ships with fishing licenses from the Falkland Islands were “catching very little but, more importantly, destroying stocks of the resource.”
On the Pacific side of the continent, fishing in Peru is also experiencing a similar crisis, with the industry reporting sharp fluctuations in yield.
In contrast, Argentina’s neighbour to the west Chile reported a staggering 243-percent increase in giant squid catches early this year. Still, Chilean exporters complained of big problems selling the product as the peso rose against the US dollar.