A balanced enemy for sport fishing

“I couldn’t even shoot. I moved everywhere, but it’s full of grass. It’s impossible to fish like that.” The phrase is repeated over and over again among the canoeists on the coast, added to the gesture of resignation and frustration that is becoming more and more contagious. As soon as they fall into the water, the lines are loaded with weight with this seaweed-like substance, they are put in tension and the bottom leads are raised (in the best of cases) or they are directly cut. who managed to recover the gear, are amazed how a kind of “marine salad” covers the hook and the bait, which makes it impossible for the possible trophy to bite. The result: zero pique.

In such a situation, something desperate, we searched for the authoritative word of someone who would give us a logical answer to this phenomenon. Absolute specialist in the matter, Gabriel Genzano, Doctor and Graduate in Biology, who currently alternates his schedules as an Independent Researcher at CONICET with teaching at the University of Mar del Plata, explained to us: “what you see in the sea is not grass , but are called hydrozoans, close relatives of corals and jellyfish. They reproduce quickly and inhabit all sectors where there are banks or hard substrates, with a strong epicenter on the coast of the province of Buenos Aires”.

On the beaches of Pinamar, Mar Chiquita, Mar del Plata and Miramar, just to name a few locations, they appeared for real moments. “mattresses of grass” on the shore and -what is worse for this activity- many of these organisms floating nearby, just within reach of the rod. Although it is true that it is a common phenomenon for the time (reproduction begins in spring), the magnitude and extension in weeks is strange. It would be necessary to go back to what happened in 1994 and in 2006, where similar situations occurred.

“There are times when the southeast and tidal waves dragged these groups en masse and that is why we see them with amazement on our coasts,” Genzano commented, adding: “they are called algae and, to tell the truth, they look like a little plant ; it looks like eventually a stem with a bunch of twigs. But it’s actually a animal colonyall connected, and that yellow that one observes is neither more nor less than the skeleton of that colony”.

Do not review any type of damage or danger, neither for marine fauna nor for man, beyond the fact that they are relatives of jellyfish. But sport fishing was seen severely affected: It was suffered by those who anchored gear for sharks or black croaker, who in just a few hours watched with astonishment the loosening and, in some cases, the loss of the gear, with all that this implies. Those who tried from the breakwater looking for the summer variety were also harmed. Impossible.

Regarding the marked increase in the volume of these agglomerations of hydrozoans, Genzano has an explanation. concrete: “This season, warmer water temperatures were recorded on the surface and that retains these groups, which tend to come and go with the tide, which were also high. The context favored a greater reproduction than usual and the larvae settled on hard substrates that are not adequate there. At the first southeast or tidal wave, they are easily uprooted and pile up on the beach. Many times they are not seen in the sand line, but they are in the water columns and that is why when sport fishermen drop the rod and take out the hook, it is full of these organisms”.

One of the epicenters of this phenomenon It was the mouth of the Mar Chiquita lagoon. In fact, the fishing season for sole and black croaker right at the exit of the lagoon was about to fail. It did not happen thanks to some crosswind from the North or Northwest sector that, at times, cleaned the water and allowed the capture of some specimens. “There it is special, because it is like a funnel. A lot of water enters, but when the tide goes out, the hydrozoans are retained by the natural barrier. This, in turn, results in a somewhat unpleasant odor because these organisms begin to rot. To make matters worse, the skeleton can persist for a while because it is quite resistant”, closed the biologist and researcher.

Scholars on the subject agree that this situation should be reversed in just a few weeks. But the fishermen watch with concern how the “grass” appears and disappears, as dictated by a nature that, they say, is wise. And the only way to know if the fishing day will be fruitful is to go and try. What is said, trial and error. We could have witnessed one of the best varied fishing seasons on the Atlantic Coast, because the species have food, there is little fresh water in the sea and the temperatures are good. But an impeded enemy appeared, small but very seasoned to leave more than one wanting. Fortunately, fishing pays off. Always.