Argentina has tightened by 20% the catch limit for Argentine hake (Merluccius hubbsi), the principal target of the country’s commercial fishing industry. Moving to protect a species that has yet to recover from years of overfishing, the Argentine Secretariat of Agriculture, Ranching, Fishing and Food now requires that the catch of hake, known locally as merluza, be limited to 270,000 metric tons annually for the next five years. Last year the government set a limit of 340,000 tons; but on account of the fish’s population decline, fishing crews only managed to land 290,000 tons. Argentine hake were fished intensively in the 1990s, with the catch reaching a record 600,000 tons in 1996. In December of 1999, then-President Fernando de la Rúa imposed emergency limits... [Log in to read more]