First three weeks Illex squid catches in Argentina considered “encouraging”

“We’ve already presented the first report up to 22 January 2026, and catches have reached 25.000 tons , with an average of 38 tons per day”, explained Ms Ivanovic, in reference to the 74 jiggers operating out of 82 licensed to fish in Argentina’s EEZ. “The fleet is operating where it does every year, with the summer spawning stock, in the intermediate platform, between 44 and 46 latitude South”, added Ms Ivanovic together with Nicolas Prandoni, who will be heading the Cephalopods department. However the abundance that the jigger fleet found north of the South Managed areas has been far from that of the sub-patagonic stock, which “we anticipated would be very poor, sadly very poor, 158 kilos, which frustrated the 53 jiggers that tried in the south”. In effect many vessels went South of 49 hoping to repeat the experience at the start of the 2025 season, when 18 jibbers managed 700 tons of high quality squid, but this year it was a disaster, and they headed north”. “Squid being ...