Peru’s Ministry of Production (PRODUCE) has opened the second anchovy fishing season of the year in the country’s south region, setting a total allowable catch (TAC) of 486,500 metric tons (MT), government gazette El Peruano reported.
The TAC is flat from that established for the first season, which ran from January through June, with the limit also set at 486,500 MT. However, as of 26 June, 2022, only 197,000 MT had been landed, or just 40.5 percent of the TAC, according to figures from the Peruvian Sea Institute (Imarpe) – a technical agency within PRODUCE that advises the state on marine conservation issues and that performs studies to evaluate the status of the Peruvian anchovy biomass.
The second season is slated to run through December, or until the TAC is reached, whichever comes first. Both the TAC and the final date of the southern region’s second fishing season may also be modified according to biological-environmental conditions, based on Imarpe findings.
Peru divides its anchovy fishing areas into two regions – south and north-central – with different capture limits and seasons set for each. The north-central is Peru’s main fishing region, with capture measuring several times that of the south region. The fishery, which targets both Engraulis ringens and Anchoa nasus for use in indirect human consumption – primarily fishmeal and fish oil used in aquaculture production – is the largest by volume in the world.
The first anchovy fishing season of the year in the country’s north-central region was launched in May, with PRODUCE setting a total allowable catch (TAC) of 2.792 million MT. The TAC represented a 36.4 percent boost from the previous season, when PRODUCE established a 2.047 million MT capture limit, of which nearly the full quota was caught.
However, conditions in the north-central region have been challenging, Adriana Giudice, the CEO of Peruvian fishing company Austral Group, told SeafoodSource.