CAUGHT IN THE NET WITH JOHN BARTON
A Report for FIBS by Lee Hazell (LH) 01/09/04
To bring in the new year, we have got the Director of Fisheries, John Barton, in to talk about his recent visit to Buenos Aires and the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission Meeting.
LH: John, you are here today to talk about your recent trip to Buenos Aires. That’s right, isn’t it?
JB: Buenos Aires in Mid December.
LH: For the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission Meeting. These meetings seem to sort of follow a set agenda and more often than not, the same subjects are talked about. Could you just refresh our memories on some of the subjects that were covered and tell us whether any decisions were taken that affect us here in the Islands?
JB: This was the 24th meeting of the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission. There is normally a meeting every six months respectively in London and Buenos Aires so this meeting had been somewhat hastily arranged for December in Argentina. I think the thought had been that perhaps we would postpone the meeting for a little bit but it was arranged for that time. As a consequence of that, the UK delegation was unable to field their normal complement of scientists as some folk had other commitments so we had a reduced delegation. As a consequence we didn’t talk about so many of the scientific issues. But they do follow a rather set agenda. I don’t think there is any particularly dramatic decisions which come out and affect the Falklands or anything but we did make progress on some of the issues, which have come up at previous meetings.
LH: What was the main issue, in your view?
JB: There are two areas where there are reasonable progress despite the fact that we were a bit undermanned on the science front. We reviewed the outcome of the recent cruises on Southern Blue Whiting and it also enabled us to plan a bit for the forthcoming joint cruise to look at the abundance of Illex that will be out and about in the South/West Atlantic for the forthcoming season. That cruise should take place in February. We were able to do a bit of planning and discuss some of the logistics for that cruise. Apart from that, I think that the other main area where there was useful discussion, not necessarily anything that is going to leap forward in the immediate future, and that was on the very important issue of progress towards what can or might be done in relation to the whole high seas issue and some multilateral or regional fisheries arrangement for this area of the South/West Atlantic, extending out on to the high seas. There’s quite a number of difficult issues that, as you might imagine, which arise in relation to doing anything with regard to the high seas. And, there have been various proposals from both sides, which have gone backwards and forwards. And, we did have quite a useful discussion on that and clarified some of the points. There are a lot of things in terms of the bilateral relationship that need to be discussed as a multilateral arrangement for the high seas might be approached. In many ways, that’s probably one of the more important on-going issues which is discussed in the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission. This is because Illex is the biggest fisheries resource in the South/West Atlantic these days. It’s very much a shared stock between the Falklands and Argentina. And, it also does extend out on to the high seas and there are a number of cases where agreements that have been made at the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission have been use to, for instance, close fisheries early in Argentina and in the Falklands to take conservation action if we think the Illex stock needs to be conserved. When that happens, fishing does continue on the high seas so it is important to try and get conservation measures which do extend out on to the high seas. Having said that, progress is still some way off, I think.
LH: Argentina has actually authorised vessels to fish beyond the 200 mile zone until the middle of February. Will this have an affect on the fishery here, do you think?
JB: It could potentially have an impact. I think that anything that increases effort on the high seas will inevitably increase the pressure on the Illex stock. And, if a significant number of vessels went out there, then they might take a fair level of catch, which, with it happening mid December into January, the likelihood is that they will catch a lot of small Squid which don’t have all that much value and it also reduces the biomass of Illex later in the season. So in that sense, it’s a step in the wrong direction. On the other hand, they are only doing what most other vessels are already doing out there because a lot of the vessels from other parts of the world – China, Korea, or wherever – will be out there fishing at that time as well. More recently we took the decision in the Falklands that Falkland flagged vessels, which we have far fewer of than many other countries, including Argentina, which might fish out there – we took the view that those vessels shouldn’t start fishing Illex until at least the 1st of January to give the Illex time to grow a bit. I think if those vessels did end up out there, they could have an impact. We did recently have a look in that area to see who was fishing there. At that time, I think we counted about 100 fishing vessels in total, most of which were jiggers and some that couldn’t be identified. Out of those vessels, we only found 3 Argentines fishing out there.
LH: Sir Robin Christopher was asked recently by the Argentine press about the atmosphere at the meeting of the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission. Now, they said that it was the coldest that anyone could remember. Do you feel that this was the case?
JB: I think that over the 24 meetings that it was all pretty much the same as usual, to be honest. It’s like the unusual thing, like even before we had the meeting, there was a press report which indicated that the meeting had been a bit chilly but at that stage we hadn’t had the meeting. By in large at the meeting, I think there was quite a lot of useful and constructive discussion and, as far as the atmosphere went, it was much as usual.
LH: Going back briefly to the Illex joint cruise, there were problems with that last year. Do you think there will be the same problem this year? Are there works underway that will stop that?
JB: We certainly hope that it will go according to schedule and, I think that whilst various things can arise which may delay it or could result in the same situation arising as did in 2003, we have agreed that we will have better communications. At least, if it looks as if there are any problems, then we may not run to the expense of sending people to join the cruise if we think it’s not going to happen. Hopefully, we can have that level of communication and we won’t have the problem. Ideally, the cruise is useful. It does provide an index of Illex abundance from year to year. Hopefully it will prove possible for it to get underway on time.
LH: Also discussed were practical measures needed to prevent poaching. What sort of things were talked about there?
JB: Again, it is something which is pretty routine on the agenda. And, to a large degree, it involves reaffirming some of the other agreements, which we already have in place. We have mechanisms for communicating if poaching is suspected in respect of areas. We have agreements on exchanging some information, which makes it easier for us all to tell whether vessels in the area should be there or not. It wasn’t agreed to do anything new. It was really just reaffirming what we already have in place, as much as anything.
LH: Going on to this forthcoming Illex season, I know, in fact, that we had a few jiggers in recently picking licences. They are all headed off to the high seas now. How many have you got so far – licences for this year?
JB: We have about 100 jiggers taking up licences, which, last year or the year before, I think we had closer to 125. So, we are down a bit at the moment. Depending on how the fishery develops, we would still hope to pick up some vessels yet. But we wouldn’t go beyond the number of 125. And, in terms of vessels through the harbour now, I think that we must be close to the high thirties. Just before Christmas we had 31 vessels go through and there has been a couple in the last few days. We are probably up around 35 or somewhere around there. They are mainly the Korean Jiggers, which have been through the harbour to pick up licences so far. Most of the other fleets – Japan, Taiwan and China – we have yet to see them.
LH: They should be arriving shortly because the season starts on the 14th of February, doesn’t it?
JB: Yes. Certainly some of those vessels are on the high seas at the moment fishing and I suppose one of the things at the moment is that information indicates that there isn’t actually a lot of catching going on out on the high seas just yet. There doesn’t seem to be too much Illex there at the moment but it is pretty early in the year for that to be there. And, as a result, I think a number of the vessels – as they are not catching anything – most of the vessels we have seen in the harbour looked pretty clean. There was no sign of any Squid ink or anything like that.. I think they have taken the view that as they were out there and not really catching anything that they may as well spend a bit of time coming down to Stanley, picking up a licence and log books so that when fishing does start and the licence starts in the Zone, they can move straight into the Zone without having to come in to pick up the licence at that time. Hopefully, Illex catches will pick up in the not too distant future.
LH: Illex catches weren’t too bad last year, were they?
JB: They were average to below average but obviously an awful lot better than the output of 2002. So we would hope that this year would be a reasonable season.
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