Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Industrial fi sheries of anchoveta peruana (Peru and Chile)
The fi sheries from northwestern South America (Chile and Peru) are highly
vulnerable to climate variability, since a climate-sensitive upwelling of
nutrient-rich waters support huge catches of anchovy and sardines (Pauly
and Tsukayama 1987, Bakum and Broad 2003). These fi sheries represent
a signifi cant input of the countries' economies. In Peru, the production of
fi shmeal and fi sh processing represents the second highest income source
after mining, and the annual exportations are valued at 1124 million of
American dollars (FAO 2003, FAO 2004). Furthermore, Peru is the major
producer of fi sh fl our and fi sh oil in the world (Daw et al. 2009).
The main issue concerning fi sheries of Peru and Chile, is the tight
coupling of fi sh productivity and the Southern Oscillation, since El Niño
warm events cause changes on the upwelling dynamics, turbulence
pattern and water temperature, which ultimately leads to a decline in
the concentration of nutrients and pelagic productivity (Jacobson et al.
2001, Chavez et al. 2003, Lehodey et al. 2006). The inter-annual variability
produced by El Niño events shape the magnitude of the annual captures
of anchovy which fl uctuated between 1.7 and 11.3 millions of tones during
the last decade (Daw et al. 2009). During the 1997/1998 El Niño event,
the fi sheries landings fell nearly 70% in the coastal area of Chile (Avaria
et al. 2004), while in Peru, anchovy and sardine landings fell about 55%
compared to the previous year, causing a loss in the revenues of more
than $26 million (CAF 2000). On the contrary, La Niña events, which are
associated with cooling sea surface temperature around Peru and Chile,
benefi t these fi sheries (Ordinola 2002, Badjeck et al. 2010).
The climate variability can favor in this system some species over
the others, as it happened in Peru, where the 1997/1998 El Niño event
benefi ted the growth of the scallop (
Argopecten purpuratus
). In response
to this, the fi sherfolks rapidly changed their fi shing methods to catch the
scallop resulting in a record harvest (Badjeck et al. 2009, Badjeck et al. 2010).
Drastic changes occur in peruvian and chilenian fi sheries when El Niño
occurs, since they change from being monospecifi c (anchovy) to become
multispecifi c fi sheries based on sardine, jack mackerel, pacifi c mackerel,
longnose anchovy and scallop between others (Ñiquen and Bouchon
2004, Badjeck et al. 2009). The variation in the stock size of anchovy and
the changes in the species landings is a central problem for determining
an optimal organization of the fi shing industry and how the governments
can best regulate the fi shing effort (Pontecorvo 2001).
