The Illex Squid Fishing Season: Fishing threatens to be suspended for nearly 20 days.

This year's squid harvest was unusual from the start. Southern Patagonia, located south of the 49°S parallel, is not exploited by a powerful fleet, but is operated by a fleet 200 miles away. However, since the start of the season, the crews of the 70-vessel Potera fleet have found surprising concentrations of squid in the area and at this time of year

Unlike in previous years, no SS, S and M sized squid have been found in the Argentine platform zone between 44ºS and 47ºS. On the contrary, since the beginning of January, M and L sized squid have been seen with a wall thickness of about 4 mm, which is unusual for that latitude and time of year. The catches have gradually increased, reaching about 30 tons per day, with large landings at Comodoro Rivadavia, Puerto Deseado and Puerto Madryn.

Since the beginning of the fishing season, this figure was expected to be considerably higher than last year. However, in the last 20 days, the Potera fleet, which fishes even north of the 44ºS parallel, has found neither the concentration nor the right size of squid.

Currently, only eight flagged vessels are still operating in the fishing area, while foreign fleets operating 200 miles away have begun traveling to Peruvian waters. At the end of the period, a group of seven Chinese-flagged vessels headed for the Strait of Magellan, indicating low availability of the resource and little interest in continuing fishing operations beyond 200 miles.If this situation continues to exist within the Argentine platform, the Federal Fisheries Commission (CFP) is considering conducting an in-depth analysis of the season this week based on the INIDEP study to determine when the 2024 squid season may end.

A temporary suspension of the fishery's scheduling for 15 to 20 days cannot be ruled out, with the possibility of restarting the fishery around the third week of June, in an attempt to find the resource in time and space, as was the case last year, to provide more opportunities for better results in the end.