In the first fishing season, 2,337,098 tonnes of anchovy were used for indirect human consumption, equivalent to 85.85% of the quota allocated for the northern and central areas of the country, Production Minister Pedro Olaechea said.

 

"The first part of the year has been positive for fishing, not only because the oceanographic conditions favored the resource, but, in addition, they were allocated one million tons more than in the first season of 2016, which greatly aided the growth of Gross domestic product (GDP), "he said.

 

He recalled that this measure was taken after monitoring by Instituto del Mar Peruano (Imarpe), between February and April of this year, whose results revealed that there was a total biomass of 7.8 million tons of anchovy, a large enough for the Sustainable fisheries.

 

Ports

 

The owner of Produce said that anchovy discharges were carried out in 13 ports and that Malabrigo (La Libertad), Paracas (Pisco, Ica), Chimbote (Cncash) and Callao had the highest percentage of discharges with 23.8% 16.5%, 15.3% and 8.9%, respectively.

 

Olaechea also pointed out that the total number of juveniles accumulated for the first season in the north-central zone was 13.96%, which is below the 15% recommended by Imarpe. "In some ports where a high percentage of juveniles were detected, the ministry ordered the closure of these fishing zones, which allowed the protection of the youth population," he said.

 

Preventive closure

 

The Minister of Production detailed that in the first season 59 releases were issued in which preventative closure of 94 fishing zones was ordered, and with these measures an estimated biomass of 758,458 tonnes of juvenile anchovy was protected.

 

Olaechea said that in the first season in the north-central zone, 24,766 discharges were inspected and 211 infractions were detected.

 

The greatest number of faults occurred in the ports of Callao (Lima) and Chimbote (Áccash).

 

Data

 

The total quota allocated by the Ministry of Production was 2.8 million tonnes for the first fishing season, which began on 22 April and culminated on 31 July.

 

This fishing season ended with a stock of over 6.5 million tonnes.

 

Last June, the fishing sector showed a growth of 52% compared to the same month last year.