Review of marine recreational fisheries regulations in Argentina

Abstract

The effects of recreational fishing on marine stocks and ecosystems have raised global concern in recent years. In Argentina, Southwest Atlantic, angling, netting and spearfishing of coastal bony fishes, sharks, rays and chimaeras are very popular pastime activities with more than 50 years of history. Despite the perceived traditional and economic relevance of these activities in the country, marine recreational fisheries were largely unregulated, and no official fisheries monitoring programs at the national level have been ever put in place. Except for a few particular systems for which some catch-and-effort data were collected by research institutions and non-governmental organizations, no comprehensive surveys aimed at describing the ecological, social or economic aspects of these fisheries have been made. Here, an updated review of the regulations in place for marine recreational fisheries along the Argentine coastline is presented. Of the five coastal provinces encompassing ca. 8400 km and about 20 latitude degrees (~36°S to 55°S) of coastline, only Buenos Airesprovince has a thorough legislation for its whole territory, which includes 15 protected areas. In the remaining provinces, the regulations for marine recreational fisheries are limited to a few protected areas (seven out of 37 coastal areas under provincial, national or shared jurisdiction). This lack of legislation encourages alleged recreational fishers to develop small-scale commercial fishing operations that are neither controlled nor monitored as such, contributing to the overexploitation of some key coastal stocks.