IN THE NET WITH BARTON AND MIDDLETON
A Report for FIBS by Lee Hazell (LH)
Last week, the Director of Fisheries, John Barton (JB) and Stock Assessment Scientist, David Middleton (DM) arrived back from the Uk where they attended the 23rd meeting of the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission in London. Firstly, I asked John about some of the items up for discussion.
JB: A lot of the things in the Statement that came out of the 23rd meeting actually included items which a lot of folk will be familiar with from previous meetings. I think in this most recent meeting there were three areas where some sort of progress or interesting issues arose that relates to the high seas, to some of the work on Illex and also to Southern Blue Whiting.
I think the other general comment was it was the first meeting we had for about a year because meetings in November and then again in March were actually cancelled for various reasons. It's also the first meeting we've had since the new Argentine Government has been in place.
In general, I think it was a more positive meeting. There are a lot of areas where things are still quibbled about and we would see progress as going rather slowly. But I think, in general, things were slightly more relaxed. It was a bit more positive and there was a bit more of a sign that decisions might be made on particular issues.
Certainly one of the interesting items that did come out of it was that both sides agreed that we ought to exchange data from vessels fishing on the high seas, both those that are flagged in our respective countries and also vessels which we license or offer permits to and that sort of thing. We want to exchange that date. Whilst that might seem like a fairly minor thing, it is quite important because certainly with the assessments over Illex, we exchange data between Argentina and the Falklands as to the catches of vessels which we have licensed.
But then we always have a disagreement or difference of opinion as to how much is actually being caught on the high seas. And, that can change the assessment or the view about how the stock has fared quite a lot depending on whether we think, for example, 30,000 tonnes has been taken on the high seas or 100,000 tons. It's our usual view that the higher amount is more relevant whereas the Argentines quite often go low. To get the real figures from vessels would be a major step forward, certainly in terms of the Illex assessment. But also it's a fairly major step forward in terms of looking at a high seas agreement. Probably the first step on that would be to start collecting up basic and reliable data from the high seas, so this should be a good step in that direction as well.
LH: So Blue Whiting was talked about as well - on-going research has been happening. I don't know, David, if you want to explain some of the things that have been happening with that?
DM: There are really two different assessments that have been done for Southern Blue Whiting. One is an assessment that's based entirely on the data coming from the fisheries - a population analysis. Assessments of that have been done both by the Falklands and by the UK scientists using combined catch data from both countries for quite some time. And, they have been supplemented for the last five or six years by acoustic surveys of the spawning fish in the spawning grounds for Southern Blue Whiting, just south of the Falklands to the west of the Beauchene area. Last year was quite significant for us because it was the first joint survey where we have actually had the Dorada as one of the vessels participating there. There were actually two vessels last year. The Dorada was one and the Argentine research vessel, Aquavalda was the other. On three different occasions, the Dorada did two different surveys of spawning stock and the third by the Aquavalda. This was the first opportunity that I had to get together with my counter-part on the Argentine side to work up the results of that survey and formulate plans for further scientific cruises in the near future. We are planning another joint survey in September/October this year.
LH: I guess you will be going on that again, will you?
DM: Yes I will.
LH: Poaching as well has been brought up. There has been quite a lot in the news lately about the poaching of Patagonian Toothfish around South Georgia and Antarctica. What sort of things were talked about there?
JB: That was touched on fairly briefly at this SAFC meeting but it certainly was agreed that we ought to exchange more information, in particular, things like Licence Lists which we have of vessels operating here. And, on the Argentine side, the lists of vessels which they have operating there or registered under charter arrangements, that we ought to exchange those lists. If we see vessels in various areas we know whether they should or should not be there. Also we perhaps could exchange some information on vessel identification and that sort of thing. It would help a bit to do that.
Going back to the Blue Whiting issue, one of the things we did take a view on at this meeting was that there has been an attempt over several years now to try and improve the numbers of Southern Blue Whiting, or to take measures that would lead to stock recovery. Catches, to some extent, have been reduced, probably more here than they have in Argentina, I would say. But the signs are that the stock hasn't really been recovering. Although it might be stabilised, it's certainly not rebuilding. The view was taken that the actual catches of Southern Blue Whiting would need to be reduced further, perhaps down to 50,000 tons to try and get some sort of recovery. We weren't able to agree at this meeting as to how we might achieve that. That's something that's been put down for the next meeting, perhaps in November, when difficult decisions might have to be taken. There probably be quite a haggle over how that might be achieved, as we have quite differing positions as to what needs to be done or who needs to implement the greater reduction. Also, that will depend on how the joint cruises go and whether they find anything which changes the current view of the state of the stocks.
The other area, really, of most interest out of the meeting this time is that there was perhaps a bit more movement towards establishing a multi-lateral agreement which would cover the high seas. That's something which the Falklands has been keen on for quite a long time. That's something that was in the original SAFC Mandate, which was set up in 1990. It's something which was highlighted in the Joint Statement of July 1999 and it's come up most meetings in between. But we haven't really made a whole lot of progress on it, to be perfectly honest. I think now there is a bit more interest in making progress on it. Again, you can see in the Statement that there was a view that we ought to look at what sort of items that would go into a bilateral agreement between Britain and Argentina as a first step heading towards that multilateral agreement. Also there is the business of collecting up data from the high seas on Illex. It would help that. It is moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction.
LH: Within the last couple of days, the Argentine President has commented on - he has protested on the Falklands fishery licensing. What do you think of that?
JB: It certainly didn't come up at the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission so perhaps it's something of a surprise. I think, really, there are a couple of issues there because they have indicated that they have expressed concern. At least if the reports are correct, they expressed concern about the number of foreign vessels which the Falklands licenses and that there may be some loss of revenue or it has an economic impact on Argentina. Certainly in terms of the number of vessels, in recent years, the catches in Argentina have gone up hugely. In the late '80s and early '90s, the Falklands were the only ones who were really catching Illex to any great extent. Argentina entered into the Illex business in about 1993. Since then, their catches have gone up massively. In the last few years they have been catching up to a high of 400,000 tons in one year but quite often somewhere around 300,000 tons of Illex are caught. Those catches far surpass anything that we catch in the Falklands. So, in terms of anything to do with conservation, the issue is total catches, or total fishing effort in many ways and it is not so much who caught it but how much was caught. So, I think we have concerns there. That's one of the areas where we have been trying to get measures extended to the high seas as well. Obviously that has an impact. We really need to look at who is catching the most Illex and certainly in the past few years, it has been Argentina.
On the economic issue, it's been a concern of ours for quite a long time - certainly since the mid '90s - at the really low price which Argentina has charged for Illex licences to fish there. That's been a concern of ours. If you look at licence fees on the basis of licence fee paid per ton of catch - catches in Argentina are often much greater than they are here - then Licence fees in Argentina have probably been about 50% of Falkland licence fees - and perhaps lower in some years. It may well be that revenue has been foregone but certainly licence fees are at a very low level in Argentina.
LH: Has the SAFC looked at the fishery policy?
JB: The fisheries policy review stuff, that is certainly something that did come up at the SAFC meeting and, in fact, the Argentines have been given a copy of the Fisheries Policy Review document and we explained a bit about it while we had the meeting. And, that is pretty much in keeping as an agenda item where that sort of thing does come up. And, in the past, they have also informed us about changes in their fisheries policy, or prospective changes, including the possibility of moving to an ITQ system in Argentina (transferable quotas). They haven't got to that stage yet but they do see that as something they might need to do to try and get their fishing industry on to a better economic footing.
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