Ecuador promotes reforms in regional organization for fisheries management

|El Telégrafo de Guayaquil
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Published on Saturday, 23 January 2021
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The prohibition of transshipments on the high seas and the progressive increase of observers on board vessels are Ecuador’s proposals at the meetings of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization.

The proposals to be made by the Government, through the Ministry of Production together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, seek to address the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, through the modernization of regulations, the continuous improvement of control processes, the imposition of dissuasive sanctions, and proposing management measures to the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations.

These measures seek to improve the management and control of distant fishing quotas and will allow us to gather scientific and statistical information that will allow us to make decisions in the future to protect the resources and the maritime ecosystem, said the Ministry of Production.

Additionally, at Ecuador’s request, the Permanent Commission of the South Pacific (CPPS) based in Guayaquil, sent to the RFMO-SP the joint declaration, dated November 3, 2020, of the foreign ministers of Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in which they reiterated their willingness to work together, join efforts and agree on common positions with the aim of preventing, discouraging and eliminating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Meanwhile, actors of the industrial and artisanal fishing sector of the country, along with national authorities and environmental agencies, meet this Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 in Galapagos, in the third fisheries summit to outline strategies around the activity, as well as to seek joint action on the reality of the fishing sector in Galapagos.

Luigi Benincasa, director of Atunec, said that the meeting is important because first they will exchange experiences on how they faced the challenges of covid-19, in addition to achieving a common position on the problems in Galapagos, due to the difficulties of exercising this productive activity.

“The environmental sector intends to expand the special reserve zone, so we will ask the government to present the studies related to the reserve zone and the 40 miles, we do not have any study at the moment,” he said.

In his opinion, it is necessary to help the fishing sector of Galapagos to find a solution to their problems because they are prohibited to carry out their fishing activities within the special zone, for this reason they have not been able to carry out their work for 20 years.

On the situation of the national fishing sector, he mentioned that in 2020 Ecuador generated 275,291 tons of fishing in its national fleet, which is equivalent to 46.2% of the total catch, in Manta 289,975 tons of tuna of the three species were unloaded.

Similarly, Guillermo Morán, principal of Tunacons, referred to the situation of the archipelago’s fishermen. “They have not been able to take advantage of all the resources available to them, they have a project of more than ten years for a vertical longline fishing plan to be approved”.

He commented that their Galapagos counterparts do not have new alternatives for fishing, they continue to catch lobster or cod, which is an old fishery.

For Morán, it is important that all sectors bring their proposals: industrial, artisanal and environmental organizations in order to reach common agreements.

In general terms, he said, 2020 despite the difficulties was a relatively stable year for the fishery, for a moment it was thought that they were going to close with a deficit due to the emergency, but in the overall balance the figures remained as in 2019.

According to the Central Bank of Ecuador, 2020 closed with $ 4,500 and 5,000 million in exports, a similar or slightly higher figure than in 2019. (El Telegrafo)