Most of the Peruvian fishing fleet is owned by 

 firms who also own factories and only about 20% 

 of the fleet is owned by independent vessel 

 owners. A fair number of these are tied to a 

 particular factory, however, and have to deliver 

 their catch there, owing to financial help 

 rendered when buying the vessel or for similar 

 reasons. 



As the number of vessels has declined so has 

 the number of processing plants. A consolidation 

 has taken place into fewer and larger units. 

 Currently, Peru has 127 flshmeal factories with 

 a total capacity of close to 8,000 tons of fish 

 per hour. About 10 of these plants did not 

 operate last season. While most firms own only 

 one factory, a number of larger firms own 

 several each. These are generally located in 

 different ports or geographic regions as a hedge 

 against poor fishing in one particular area. 



CURRENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS 



Both the Peruvian authorities and the Peru- 

 vian fishing industry have for several years 

 been aware of the danger of overexploiting the 

 anchoveta stock, and have taken steps to reduce 

 the pressure on the resource. Fishing effort 

 expanded quickly until the 1963-64 season when 

 the total catch reached a level of 8 million tons. 

 Thereafter, first closed seasons and then overall 

 catch quotas were established. At the present 

 time, the following programs or restrictions 

 are in force: 



1. The fishery is closed on Saturdays and 

 Sundays. 



2. The fishery is closed about 1 month in 

 summertime during the "peladilla"-season. 

 That closure ("veda") takes place when 

 there are large amounts of small fish 

 (peladilla) in the catch. The time of the veda 

 varies from year to year. In 1970 the 

 closure was from mid-February to mid- 

 March, which was too late. 



3. During the fishing season, after the pela- 

 dilla have entered the fishery and explora- 

 tory cruises to assess the recruitment have 

 taken place, an overall quota is established 

 for the season. When this quota is reached, 

 the fishery is closed.- 



^ Except from the port of 

 border. 



lo close to the Chilean 



4. Each factory has been given a license for 

 a certain daily input of raw material. The 

 license capacity is stated in terms of tons 

 per hour. This quantity multiplied by 24 

 is the maximum quantity a factory is 

 permitted to accept in one day. Due to the 

 fact that both the licensed and the technical 

 capacities of the fishmeal factories have far 

 exceeded landings, factory licenses have 

 not been effective in reducing fishing 

 pressure. 



THE CURRENT SITUATION 



The Anchoveta Resource 



Anchoveta generally spawns in late winter 

 (August) and reaches a harvestable stage in 

 midsummer (December-February). It has a life 

 span of 2 to 3 years. In the early and middle 

 60's. fish 1-year old or more contributed to most 

 of the catch, while later the zero year class has 

 become dominant in the annual catch and its 

 percentage of the total catch is increasing. This 

 is considered a warning signal. Actually at the 

 beginning of last season, September-November 

 1970, the catch was lower per month than in any 

 month in 1965, five years ago. The rich 1969-70 

 fishery did not perform well before the zero 

 year class came of size. An FAG panel on stock 

 assessment which met in Peru in January 1970 

 came to the conclusion that the maximum sus- 

 tainable yield of the Peruvian anchoveta resource 

 most probably was 9.5 million tons ( ± 1 million 

 tons). The experts recommend that the authori- 

 ties permit a 10-million ton catch coupled with 

 close observation of the fishery to see what effect 

 this fishing pressure would have. The authori- 

 ties, however, permitted 11 million tons to be 

 caught, which biologists think will significantly 

 hurt the fishery in 1970-71, both because too 

 much of the 1-year class already might have 

 been harvested and possibly also due to reduced 

 reproductive stock. 



Fishing Pressure 



While the summer veda is of biological sig- 

 nificance since it prevents the catching of large 

 quantities of very small fish, and while the 

 prohibition of weekend fishing might have some 



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