Chile: The Chile Senate has adopted by a large majority a bill regulating the annual global quotas of certain small pelagic fisheries, such as horse mackerel, anchovy and sardine.
The initiative, promoted by Senator Jaime Orpis, will set fishing quotas in different regions of the country for next year.
After receiving only one vote against the bill, the House of Representatives passed the bill for final processing, as the allocation of quotas should be made in December.
Senator Antonio Horvath, president of the Committee on Fisheries, said the bill establishes the division annual fees according to different macrozones and certain 'associativity' in the same fishery, in order share quotas among different areas.
Horvath also reported that a study be carried out within a period of 18 months in order to set the size of sexual maturity for mackerel, as studies indicate that the sizes would be different in the north and south.
For his part, Senator Jaime Orpis recalled that more than one stock of mackerel exists, so that scientific studies will be crucial.
Senator Eugenio Tuma said that the project will do justice to the regions that have no correlation between what they produce and what quotas they are allocated.
Navarro voted against it because he argued that the initiative does not solve the underlying problems, for example, the state collapse of the mackerel. And senator Isabel Allende abstained from voting because she claims that you can not keep ignoring the underlying situation that affects fishermen.
Last month, the Association of Industrial Fisheries of Bío Bío AG (Asipes) complained that the measures taken by the Chilean government "have not been sufficiently drastic" to protect the country's fishery resources.
"Here, the voice of scientists is disregarded. It has been carried out for political reasons and when a biological topic is delivered by a populist approach, the result is always bad," said the new entity's president, Roberto Izquierdo.
He emphasised that "there is no other productive activity" in which the authorities "have as much discretionary power" as in fishing.
Analia Murias (Fishing Information and Services)
