The cold season in Ecuador affects the activity of the domestic fishing sector. The temperature this year is lower than normal and has caused a reduction of catches close to 40 percent.
Nevertheless, cases exist where the reduction of the fishing is drastic. "A boat of 600 tons only catches between 30 and 60 tons", explains Lucia Fernandez, president of the Ecuadorian Tuna Boatowners Association (Atunec). Therefore, in some cases the boats only fill up with between five and ten percent of their total hold capacity.
The normal temperature at this time of the year is between 21 and 22 degrees Celsius, but at the moment it’s about 17 degrees. According to the technical information provided to the tuna sector in Ecuador, the predictions are that the temperature will even descend more until October. Although there is no exact data registered of the losses, the Ecuadorian fishing fleet captured 34,000 tons until June, which is only half of what is normally captured during the first semester of the year. The annual total catch is usually between 120,000 and 150,000 tons according to data registered in Atunec.
The sector’s worries are increasing because already for three months catches have been down. Furthermore, the IATTC tuna ban begins on Sunday, August 1st and the raw material that the processors need is still decreasing.
According to Lucia Fernandez, the Ecuadorian tuna industry has few possibilities importing raw material because these low temperatures have not only appeared in the Pacific Ocean but also in the East Indian and the Atlantic Ocean.
As a consequence to the drop in captures there has been a sharp reduction in tuna exports during the first five months of the year. According to the Central data bank between January and May the sector exported USD 25.1 million whereas in the same period last year exports reached USD 48.8 million. The foreign sales went down by 48 percent.