All images and text © Kevin Moloney


Dock crews ready a factory ship for cast-off at the Argentine port of Ushuaia for a three-month South Atlantic cruise. One of the world's healthiest fisheries, the South Atlantic faces ever-increasing pressure from hungry Asian and European markets. While stocks remain stronger in the southern Atlantic waters than in most other parts of the world, diminishing populations of some species prompted Argentina in 1999 to adopt fishing restrictions for the first time. Since then, the government, battling with budget shortfalls, has swung between imposing and lifting restrictions as they weigh the needs of the environment against those of unemployed fishermen.



Capt. Trevor Betts, foreground, watches as the Dorada, one of two patrol vessels leased by the Falkland Islands Fishery Patrol, leaves port for a cruise in the Falkland Islands Conservation Zone. Created in 1986, the zone covers 34,000 square kilometers in a 320-kilometer radius around the islands. It is noted for its stocks of illex squid, cod and hake. Falkland officials are serious about defending the zone. In 2000, Betts and the Dorada fired on a Taiwanese squid jigger poaching inside the boundary, eventually bringing the ship in to face fines and legal charges.



Chilean and Brazilian crew members aboard a Falklands-owned trawler wait to embark on a three-month fishing cruise in the Falkland Islands Conservation Zone. Not only an effort at resource conservation, the zone is also a business enterprise for the 2,500 islanders. Sixty percent of the colony's $30 million annual budget comes from licenses to fish Falkland waters.



Miles of hook lines wait at the ready aboard a Falkland Islands-registered factory trawler. Tons of hake and whiting will be cleaned, packed and frozen as quickly as it can be pulled aboard the small vessel. The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the world annual fish catch at $80 billion and says that the global catch has more than doubled in the last 25 years.



Asian crew members aboard the Argentine-registered Tai-An factory trawler prepare the ship to embark from Ushuaia on a several-month tour of the South Atlantic. Capt. Beto Tagliamonte didn't expect the voyage to tax the ship's capacity to haul in 5,000 tons of uncleaned fish per trip. "There's just not that many fish out there," he said.


All images and text © Kevin Moloney

Price of Development || Ozone Depletion