Natural catastrophe cannot be stopped from happening. The only cause a human could do is to lessen the impact as far as it could use technological advancements and discovery. We cannot deny the fact that we are nothing against the Mother Nature. Nature can come back ten times fold stronger when a disaster strikes. The only hope for humanity to have a chance of survival against the claw of Mother Nature is to help one another. That is why the Research of Institute for the Study of Man led a research studying the underlying effects of El Nino to the Ecuadorean fisheries, Peruvian in particular.
A powerful El Nino has significant adverse implications in the Eastern Pacific, and it is reported to be causing adverse effects on Peru’s fisheries near the coast. The most affected area is located on the coast of northern Peru. One of the most affected fishing is the anchovy farms. It was considered severely impaired by El Nino. According to the Ministry of Fisheries anchovy practically disappeared during the strike of the calamity. All left was a few small fishing grounds along the southern coast; anchovy was also found along the cities of Ite and Morro Sama and in Camana and Ocona. Meanwhile, anchovy can only be found along Huacho and Sucre, Salaverry and Isla Lobos on the northern coast.
According to the Instituto del Mar or IMARPE, the behavior of the anchovy changed to adapt to the situation – they bury themselves in as deep as 200 m, making it impossible for the fishermen to catch the school of anchovy. It was also noted that in the year 1982, over 60,000 fishermen and other workers had been laid off caused by the dawning dilemma.
On the other hand, sardine, shrimp, and mackerel are the other sea living that has been affected. Although IMARPE noted that El Nino has a positive impact on mackerel fishery. However, not all Peruvian fishers can take advantage of the situation since large vessels and gears are the ones capable of fishing mackerel. These opportunity open doors for a joint venture with offshore fishers who are already doing business out of mackerel.
Out of the calamity experience by Peru, there are also opportunities to be learned from the challenge. The phenomenon was extensively discussed by oceanographers, meteorologists, and other scientists to hopefully find a solution and put an end to the problem faced by the humble fishermen in the Peruvian community.