Starting next year, Argentina will divvy up its hake-fishing grounds and attempt to enforce new limits on the annual catch to prevent serious overfishing of the species known here as merluza. A new law passed this year places certain areas off limits to the large foreign-owned trawlers that have been permitted to fish in Argentine waters. Passed by Congress earlier this year, the law also will split the fishing grounds into two regions, with large fishing and refrigeration vessels operating below the 48th parallel and smaller vessels that return daily with their catch operating above it. The Federal Fishing Council, Argentina’s main fishing regulatory body, will continue setting annual hake-fishing limits under the new law. But the council also will establish quotas... [Log in to read more]