| inbluevt | Date: Thursday, 2013/05/23, 12:40 PM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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Pablo Cesar Recabal skippered his father’s boat, The Eslora, past the five-mile point reserved for artisan fisherman to a distance where the Chilean coast becomes a blur on the surface of the water.
Reading his handheld electronic compass, Recabal calculated that at these coordinates, 10 miles out, his crew would find fish. A decade ago, when his father Frolian was in charge, rarely would he venture further than a few miles from shore. But those days are long gone.
“All artisan fisherman in this region fish between 12 and 15 miles out because there aren’t fish closer in,” Recabal said.
What Chilean law sets aside for about 85,000 small-scale fishermen is seldom enough to fill their nets, he explained. So the prospect of a 30-foot-long by 8-foot-wide boat bobbing atop daunting swells in the
South Pacific is now a reality for many of Chile’s artisanal fishermen.
After decades of unchecked plunder, nearly all commercial fisheries in Chile are in a state of precipitous decline, especially the once-plentiful jack mackerel. In the mid-1990s, Chile’s fishermen netted
4.5 million tons of the emblematic fish, a rich source of Omega-3,
processed here mainly as fishmeal. Last year the total haul had dropped
to less than 300,000 tons.
Read parts 1, 2, and 3
Message edited by inbluevt - Thursday, 2013/05/23, 12:41 PM |
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