Achievements and Setbacks in the Commercial Diving Fishery of San José Gulf, Argentine Patagonia.

ORENSANZ, J.M.,; PARMA, A.M.,; CIOCCO, N.F.; CINTI, A

“Fisheries Management: Progress Towards Sustainability”

Blackwell Scient. Publ.

Lugar: No Informado; Año: 2007; p. 68 - 87

  A decline in scallop supplies from the Georges Bank during the late 1960s created a market for alternative products. Many small- scale fisheries sprouted to seize the opportunity, among them a dredge fishery for the Tehuelche scallop in San Matías Gulf, Argentine Patagonia. After the fishery collapsed in 1971, dredgers turnded their attention to dense grounds discovered in San José Gulf, an ecologically sensitive area that had just been designated as a provincial marine park. Factual evidence and common sense suggested that the collapse of the San Matías fishery was due to the use of a fishing gear that was unselective and disruptive of the benthic ecosystem.               Collaboration between scientists and group of innovative fishers showed habitat-friendly commercial diving was feasible, and this resulted in the first commercial diving scallop fishery collapsed in 1996 and was closed for three years. The fishers that survived the crisis developed a substantive proposal for recovery, its backbone being a limited-entry program that would introduc appropiate incentives and put a cap on effort. A co-management program, involving scientist, fishers, and managers was put together to provide guidance. The fishery subsequently recovered, and is thriving again. Recovery of the resource brougth pressure to increase the number of licenses, posing the risk of a ratcher effect on effort. A new round is on, but this time fishers, scientists, and managers have learned important lessons and know how to work together. The direction for continued achievement is now clearer.