11 B u s i n e s s p l a n | F i s h m e a l a n d f i s h o i l p r o d u c t i o n Industr y over view EL NIÑO The El Niño is a disruption of the oceanatmosphere system in the Tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather and climate around the globe. A mild El Niño occurs every 2 to 7 years and typically lasts from nine months to two years. Major El Niño events (major meaning long-lasting and/or highly influential) have on average occurred every 26 years6 (NOAA 2011). In normal conditions, winds in the South Pacific push warm water towards Australia and Asia. When warm water is pushed away from the coast of South America, and it is replaced with water from the deep of the ocean. This water is cold and nutrient rich. This process is called upwelling and it fuels the large schools of fish present around the eastern Pacific. During El Niño years this nutritious process can collapse and the fish is driven deeper and away from the shorelines of South America. This drives anchovy to cooler and deeper seawater or south closer to the shore, where industrial fishing is not permitted. Therefore, it becomes harder to catch fish and landings reduces significantly. The decrease of the production of fishmeal in the world under the influence of El Nino is well seen in Figure 10. Figure 10. El Niño impact to Global Fishmeal production The production in Chile and Peru simultaneously fell while the production in USA and China continued slightly growing. This reduces their competitiveness in of the fishmeal markets. R E C A P :
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