Anchovy. (Photo: IRD/Arnaud Bertrand)
Instituto del Mar del Peru (IMARPE) announced that next month a new assessment will be made of the anchovy status in the areas between Talara (Piura) and the southern end of the Peruvian coast.
Operation Eureka LXVII, scheduled for 19 and 20 November, will make it possible to assess the state of this small pelagic resource from latitude 04° LS (Talara) to the southernmost tip of Peru's maritime domain, and from the coastline up 100 nautical miles.
For this, industrial ship owners were invited to participate with their boats in the development of this activity and continue evaluating the anchovy situation, Andinaagency reported.
Furthermore, IMARPE submitted its report on the current status of the resource stock in the south as well as the capture prospects for the period between November 2014 and March 2015 to the Ministry of Production (PRODUCE).
The scientists said that between August and October, onboard an assessment cruise the propagation of Kelvin waves were found to be more frequently than in previous years. This affects the anchovy’s habitat and reduces the availability of nutrients and phytoplankton biomass.
According to the report, these environmental factors directly impacted on the distribution patterns and the available resource biomass.
Landings in the southern coastal area "have reported an estimated 25,692 tonnes, which represented 11 per cent of the maximum allowable catch limit (MACL) set for the season, and it has been 88 per cent lower than that recorded during the same period last year," reads the document.
And the Southern stock biomass -- estimated through 15 October, 2014 -- was 244,329 tonnes, 87 per cent lower than that observed during the winter of 2013.
So far this year, anchovy landings have totalled 336,672 tonnes.
"Under these oceanographic abnormal conditions of low biomass level and the likely prospects for the coming months of the arrival of a new Kelvin wave that would impact the resource, the biomass is insufficient to recommend a total allowable catch limit for the southern region of Peru," IMARPE explained.
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