88 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28, No. 7 



Peru (Contd.): 



Based on these production figures, it ap- 

 pears that after a very poor start in October 

 and November 1965, the anchovy landings for 

 this season improved greatly, permitting fish 

 meal production levels to exceed those of the 

 same months (except possibly for April) of 

 the two preceding seasons. 



Fish meal stocks, as of March 31, 1966, 

 stood at 445,347 metric tons and were esti- 

 mated at about 530,000 tons in early May, as 

 the fishing in the latter half of April was re- 

 portedly very good. 



During the first week of May 1966, the 

 price of fish meal rose about $20 a ton (to a- 

 bout $148.00 f.o.b. Peru). 



At the end of March 1966, 147 fish meal 

 plants were reported in production, compared 

 with 142 for that period of 1965. 



The current fishing season for anchovy 

 was scheduled to end on May 31, 1966, with a 

 total catch of about 7.8 million metric tons. 

 Under present Peruvian regulations, there 

 was to be a closed season June -August, with 

 a maximum anchovy catch to be set for the 

 1966/67 fishing season, probably to be be- 

 tween 7 and 8 million tons. This new regula- 

 tory approach grew out of concern that the 

 anchovy resource may have been overfished, 

 which was expected to have serious immedi- 

 ate implications for the local reduction indus- 

 try which has an estimated processing capac- 

 ity of 16 million tons. As the industry is one 

 which operates on heavy credit margins, and 

 many of the plant and fishing fleet owners are 

 heavily in debt, the closed season would like- 

 ly impose a serious strain on financial re- 

 sources of many in the industry. One antici- 

 pated result would be a consolidation, leading 

 to fewer but more efficient fishing vessels 

 and meal plants. 



During the first quarter of 1966 (the sec- 

 ond three months of the current fishing sea- 

 son), Peru exported fish meal to the following 

 countries : 



Europe: 



West Germany. 

 East Germany . 

 Belgium. . . . 

 Czechoslovakia 

 Cyprus .... 



Spain 



Finland .... 



Metric Tons 



Percentage 



64,528 



16.1 



29,615 



7.4 



8,150 



2.0 



8,896 



2.2 



50 



- 



47,990 



12.0 



3.000 



0.8 



(Listing continued on next coliunn.) 



Europe (Contd.): 



Metric Tons 



5,794 

 2,782 



45,286 



5,000 



500 



1,000 



26,263 



17,071 

 4,000 

 4,448 



13,905 



Percentage 



1.4 

 0.7 

 11.3 

 1.2 

 0.1 

 0.3 

 6.6 

 4.3 

 1.0 

 1.1 

 3.5 















Italy 







Yugoslavia 



Total 



288; 278 



7J.0 



Western Hemisrfiere: 



1,700 



100 



12 



780 



60,454 



14,781 



4,500 



0.4 



0.2 



15.1 



3.7 



1.1 





Brazil 







United States 







Total 



82,327 



20.5 



Asia - Near East: 

 Israel 



2,000 

 28,000 



0.5 

 7.0 



Japan 



Total 



30,000 



7.5 



Grand Total 



400,605 



100.0 



During January-March 1966, 16,312 metric 

 tons of semirefined fish oil a. id 5,934 tons of 

 crude fish oil were exported, a total of 22,246 

 tons. 



It is interesting to note that vast resources 

 of hake exist off Peru and Chile which can be 

 converted to fish meal. Chile is already pro- 

 ducing over 10,000 metric tons of fish meal 

 annually from hake. Up until now, the fish 

 reduction industry in Peru has been largely 

 dependent upon the anchovy resource for its 

 raw material, but the advent of conservation 

 regulations may accelerate development and 

 utilization of the hake resource potential. 

 (U.S. Embassy, Lima, May 10 and May 24, 

 1966.) 



***** 



USAID MISSION FAVORS SMITHSONIAN 

 PROPOSAL TO STUDY RELATIONSHIP 

 BETWEEN ANCHOVY AND 



GUANO BIRD POPULATION: 



Members of Peru's guano fertilizer Indus - 

 try believe that the recent decline in the num- 

 ber of guano birds is related to the competi- 

 tion for the anchovy resource from the fish 

 meal industry. The members of the fish meal 

 industry, however, do not believe that a rela- 

 tionship necessarily exists; there is the pos- 

 sibility that when the Humboldt current changes 

 and the fish go deep under water, the fish are 

 inaccessible to the birds and they die of star- 

 vation from natural causes. Bird numbers 

 declined drastically in 1911, 1917, 1925, 1932, 

 1950, and 1957, prior to extensive develop- 



