Fishing boats in Peru’s Chimbote harbor wait for seas to calm before going out to catch anchoveta, part of the world’s largest capture fishery by weight. The oily pelagic fish, which are only about 8 inches long, thrive in vast schools in the nutrient-rich upwellings off Peru’s rugged Pacific coast and are processed into fish meal and fish oil, which are critical ingredients in livestock and aquaculture feeds, as well as pet foods, supplements, and cosmetics. About 80 percent of Peru’s fish meal is imported by China to feed its fish farms. The Copeinca fish meal factory, one of several that line the beach of Chimbote, was bought by China Fishery Group Ltd. in 2013 and has the largest catch quota in Peru, but the company went bankrupt and was acquired by creditors. The volatile Peruvian anchoveta fishery nearly collapsed in the past, due to overfishing and El Niño events, but government regulations and harvest quotas have helped stabilize it somewhat.
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