[LINK] "The Mystery of the Vanishing Squid in South Atlantic"

[rfmcdonald]

Marcela Valente's IPS article is disturbing. If the reproductive strategies of the fast-breeding, fast-living squid aren't enough ...

Environmental factors, lack of cooperation and overfishing have caused a sharp fall in catches of squid in the southwestern Atlantic ocean, the most important fishery in the world for this species.

In the first six months of this year, the squid catch fell by 50.4 percent compared to the same period in 2009, which had again been a very bad year compared to 2008.

In the first half of 2009, 58,000 tonnes of squid were caught, but the amount dropped to 29,000 tonnes in the first half of this year. In 2007, the Argentine fishing fleet alone caught 232,000 tonnes, while even more was caught by foreign ships operating just outside the exclusive economic zone, which extends up to 200 nautical miles from the shore.

Exports of squid, Argentina's second largest fisheries export after hake (Merluccius hubbsi), contracted 68 percent by volume in the same period of this year, driving prices up.

Companies, environmental organisations and scientists agree that rather than a single cause, a number of factors are impacting on this short-lived species which is highly sensitive to changes in its habitat.

Squid, regarded as a delicacy served stuffed or as fried rings, live for about a year. After mating, females release fertilised eggs onto the sea bottom, and hatched juveniles continue the cycle in the next season.