The predatory effects of unregulatory fishing in South Atlantic waters.

Across the undaunted stretch of deep blue South-Atlantic Ocean waters in Argentina habitats the ‘Squids’. However, just outside Argentina’s 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone, lies the intensive, unregulated fishing arena which is a concerning threat to the squid population, a key food source for many marine animals.

Jesús Uríos, an ocean policy expert with the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has flagged that because there are no fishing quotas in these international waters, it’s difficult to assess the full impact of overfishing, but he warned of a potential collapse of the species. He pointed out that “every year, around 343 Asian-flagged jigging vessels, mainly Chinese, but also from South Korea and Taiwan, operated in the area. The increase in demand for squid has caught our attention. This species is clearly threatened by this intensive Asian fishing”.

The document also mentioned severe labour abuses on these ships, with 169 testimonies from workers, mostly Indonesian describing their physical violence, denial of medical care, and excessive working hours, which according to Urios bespokes “modern slavery”.

“We are talking about physical abuse, physical violence such as beatings, punches, threats, intimidation. We also have things like denial of medical assistance. There have been up to five deaths on board four Chinese vessels during the study period, often due to negligence. And also, excessive working hours, more than 14 hours a day, sometimes 18”, he explained.

Unlike squid fishing quotas in Argentine national waters, where the number of fishing vessels is limited to between 70 and 75, fishing for this species in international waters outside the 200 nautical mile zone is completely unregulated. “The problem is that we don’t know to what extent, in the sense that since we don’t have information on what is being fished outside the Argentina’s exclusive economic zone, it is very difficult to know how much of the squid population is being removed each year”, Uríos warned.

“With excessive overfishing, we could be seeing a collapse of the species. In fact, in 2016, they thought squid was finished. There was a very low squid population, and it has not recovered since then”, he told Reporters.

Team Maverick