Peru is the world's leading supplier of Giant Squid, the country's most important fishery resource after anchovy and number one for human consumption. The Giant Squid fishery is the second most important fishery in Peru, both in terms of catch volume and export quantities.
After the implementation of a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) for the Peruvian fishery of the Giant Squid species, the aim is to improve the fishery sustainability in all its dimensions and to achieve the MSC certification.
Renato Gozzer, Deputy Latin America Fisheries Director of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), explains how the Giant Squid Fishery Improvement Project is very important to gather all stakeholders and work together to achieve MSC certification of Peruvian fisheries involved in catching this species.
The Giant Squid Fishery Improvement Project has been in operation for more than two years, but the European and American markets have been seeking for more than four years to be supplied with certified sustainable products, so the process has been slow to implement.
Currently, the program management is being led by a group of businessmen who joined together under the name of the Peruvian Chamber of Giant Squid (CAPECAL) and took an active role in obtaining results and progress on compliance with the FIP – Giant Squid; one of the most important actions so far.
For proper compliance with the regulations included in the FIP – Giant Squid, the modification of the Giant Squid Fishing Regulation is one of the demands requiring promptness in the project management. It has been more than four years since the regulation started and is now outdated, so it needs to be improved to suit the real situation of fishermen, fisheries and the country.
Gozzer highlights the efforts of the companies for the development of fishing for human consumption but also points out that there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve full development and implementation of this program in the country.
SFP is a marine conservation nonprofit dedicated to helping the seafood supply chain function in as environmentally-friendly a fashion as possible.