Management committee on Southern blue whiting is working on proposals for sustainable development
August 28th, 2016
Southern blue whiting
In Viña del Mar, the second session of the Management Committee on southern blue whiting took place, where Subpesca institution exposed state of the main indicators of fishery, jointly with reproductive antecedent of the resource.
Luis Adasme, professional of Instituto de Fomento Pesquero (IFOP) explained the importance of this committee, and how necessary was to advance in the creation and implementation of an appropriate management plan, which could be supported by the best available scientific information of resources.
He also mentioned that this resource, which is shared with Argentine fishing operations, and being the fishery in Chilean waters mainly associated with a migration rate and reproductive concentration of this species, since 2010 has experienced a clear decline in both, landing and fishing biological indicators more important (yield, size structure, age).
Leonardo Nunez, Executive Director of Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, emphasized that national fishery research should be intensified in quality and timeliness, in order to have the best information for management institutions at the time of decision making.
Rodrigo San Juan, researcher of IFOP and speaker on reproductive aspects of Southern blue Whiting, said that “adult fish shoals of this resource made a reproductive migration every year from sub-Antarctic waters towards the Chilean coast, being August the month with historically maximum peak of spawning from this resource. This reproductive rate has been noticeably weakened in recent years, both the participation of adult spawners (> 50cm), as well as the decline experienced by this species fertility indicator”.
This is the second meeting of the management committee of southern blue whiting, and the work has continued on solving the problems of fishery focused on its management procedures.