Falkland Islands squid industry in crisis: Would be baned by the year of 2025?

The future of the Falkland Islands' fishing industry is looking increasingly bleak, with the industry facing an unprecedented crisis as scientists warn about the long-term sustainability of the Loligo squid stock. Recently, the Falkland Islands Government was forced to call an abrupt halt to all fishing in the second fishing season of 2024 due to the plummeting squid stock, a decision that sent shockwaves through the Falkland Islands, Galicia, Spain and the entire South Atlantic fishing community.

Scientists are pessimistic about the future resilience of squid stocks. Alexander Arkhipkin, a former Falkland Islands chief fisheries scientist and cephalopod expert, said that while it is possible for squid stocks to recover quickly under favourable conditions, he is not optimistic about the prospects for the 2025 fishing season given the current plunge in the resource. Alsipkin and other experts have even suggested that the Falkland Islands consider more stringent measures in 2025, including a total ban on fishing, in order to protect squid stocks and prevent their further decline.

In a statement on 16 August, the Falkland Islands Government mentioned that allowing the fishing season to continue would pose a serious threat to squid stocks and the industries that depend on them, as the current squid stock is well below the 10,000 tonne threshold needed to maintain the stock's reproductive cycle. James Wilson, Deputy Director of the Falkland Islands Department of Natural Resources, explained that a range of environmental factors, such as severe summer weather, strong northward currents and abnormally low sea temperatures, may be seriously affecting the survival and migratory patterns of the squid stock, which are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature.

This situation not only poses a threat to squid stocks, but also has a significant economic impact on the fishery as a whole. Without the income from the second fishing season, fishing companies and future tax revenues will be severely negatively impacted. Andy Keeling, Chief Executive of the Falkland Islands, pointed out that the current system does not provide automatic compensation for such closures, leaving the industry as a whole to petition the Legislative Assembly for relief.

The Falkland Islands fishing industry was already struggling in an environment of decades of high global supply chain inflation, high fuel prices and rising borrowing rates. The cancellation of the fishing season at this time adds insult to injury, especially when around 20% of the Loligo fleet is undergoing expensive modernisation. Cheryl Roberts, chairman of the Falkland Islands Fishing Companies Association and spokeswoman for the Squid Producers Group, said the situation would further exacerbate the financial pressures on the industry as a whole.

More than $265 million has been spent over the past two years on buying and refurbishing new vessels to increase industry capacity and ensure long-term sustainability. However, it appears that these investments are becoming increasingly difficult to recoup in the face of the continuing decline in squid stocks. This is the first time that the Loligo squid season has failed to open at all, signalling that the challenges facing the Falkland Islands' fishing industry are at an all-time high.

Whether the Falkland Islands' fishing industry will be able to extricate itself from this predicament in the future remains an open question. What is certain, however, is that without timely and effective measures, the future of this traditional industry will be fraught with uncertainty and may even come to an end.