MSC pre-assessment made available

Project participants confirmed

Updated 2024 Workplan

Updated 2024 workplan

Workplan made public

The FIP conducted four virtual meetings with six captains from the freezer trawl discussing the Private On-Board Observer Program, primary species management, and best fishing practices. The meetings aimed to gather captains' perspectives to develop a protocol for good fishing practices, address issues like trawl duration and vessel processing capacity, and explore new selectivity devices and bird scaring options.

CeDePesca and INIDEP signed an agreement to collaborate on scientific-technical activities for the Argentine hake fishery freezer fleet. The agreement focuses on developing documents for squid catch analysis, a descriptive report on incidental catches from the last 10 years, and evaluating the impact of fishing on benthic communities, marking a significant advancement in understanding fishery interactions.

The FIP held a virtual meeting with INIDEP researchers to discuss the status of their work. Although no concrete progress has been made on estimating the HCR, efforts will continue on estimating the PBRL. 

The FIP produced a report based on preliminary data from the Private On-Board Observer Program (POAB), which covered 6 fishing trips and 480 hauls from September 2022 to November 2023. The bycatch of pink cuskeel amounted to 36.43 tons, or 0.25% of the total bycatch. Monitoring revealed that pink cuskeel catch percentages remained consistently below the 3% threshold set by Resolution No. 09/2018, indicating regulatory compliance and suggesting no hindrance to resource recovery.

A virtual meeting was held between the FIP and captains to discuss the results of the observer program and good fishing practices. 

The FIP held a virtuall meeting to discuss plans for 2023-2024 in the Fishing Gear Department, including inquiries about selectivity trials; the FIP proposed utilizing PROME partner vessels for pending trials

A preliminary report of the onboard observer program has been made available; the report covers data from 4 fishing hauls between September 2022- July 2023 and demonstrates that the incidental catch represents 0.35% of the total catch.

Advisory and Transfer Report 59/2023 has been published which details the protocol for obtaining benthic samples by researchers fishing in the freezer fleet of Argentina hake south of 41ºS.

The draft proposals for management measures have been made available encompassing management objectives, control rules, ecosystem impact strategies and provisions for monitoring and control.

A preliminary report of the  Private On-Board Observer Program (POAB) was produced detailing the level of discards by  the freezer fleet. 

A review of compliance measures was conducted; recommendations include promoting improvements in primary species management through monitoring and control efforts. 

A training workshop on the methodology for setting biological reference points was conducted by INIDEP.

The FIP held a virtual meeting to discuss the progress of research activities; the group shared plans for estimating reference points and presented a rough draft of the management plan to FIP partners. 

Historical and current sanctions data has been made available; 8 sanctions have been administered between 2019-2022.

Stock assessment for the pink cuskeel has been made available using data from 1980-2021

The monitoring commission of the Argentina hake fishery met  to discuss current management measures

Meeting held between CeDePesca and the INIDEP teams; capture control rules and limit biological reference points were highlighted.

Increase to PI score 3.2.3; Sanctions are actively enforced per the report from the National Fisheries Control and Inspection Directorate. Between 2019 and 2022, a total of eight sanctions were imposed, and there have been minimal violations over the last four years, suggesting a low likelihood of non-compliance.

Increase to PI 1.1.1; the assessment of the common hake (Merluccius hubbsi) south of 41° S demonstrates that the proportion of large spawners has improved to 15-18% over the last four years, indicating that spawning biomass is at very high levels and recruitment is stable.