For years, Argentine red shrimp was known throughout the seafood industry as “red gold.” The species, Pleoticus muelleri, became one of Argentina’s most valuable seafood exports, prized for its large size, vibrant color, sweetness, consistency, and wild-caught origin. But as farmed shrimp expanded globally, prices went down and sustainability expectations grew across seafood markets, Argentine producers began looking for new ways to differentiate their product. Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification quickly became part of that conversation.
What followed was more than a decade of work through two separate but interconnected Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs): one operating in provincial waters and another in federal offshore waters. In March 2025, the provincial fishery achieved MSC certification, followed by the offshore fishery in February 2026. Together, the certifications now cover nearly the entire Argentine red shrimp sector.
One of the biggest challenges was that the fishery was never managed as a single system. Argentine red shrimp migrate seasonally between provincial waters (within 12 nautical miles of shore) and federal offshore waters. During the summer, the stock is concentrated closer to shore; during winter, it moves offshore into federal waters. That created what participants described as a “sequential fishery”: two fisheries harvesting the same stock under different jurisdictions, regulations, and management structures.
In the context of a healthy stock, the fisheries also faced different sustainability challenges. In provincial waters, bycatch rates were generally lower and the fishery targeted larger adult shrimp during spawning periods. But management systems were weak, regulations were incomplete, and observer coverage was limited. Offshore, the fishery had stronger monitoring systems, but major concerns existed around hake bycatch and ecosystem impacts involving marine mammals, seabirds, and turtles.
The FIPs were coordinated with support from CeDePesca, an NGO with long experience working on fisheries improvement and MSC processes in Latin America. At the start, both fisheries faced major gaps: weak management systems, limited ecosystem data, incomplete observer programs, lack of biologically based harvest control rules, and distrust between provincial and federal institutions.
Political turnover became one of the biggest obstacles. Supportive fisheries officials would help advance reforms, only for new administrations to stall or reverse progress. Participants involved in the FIP described long periods where decisions were driven more by short-term commercial interests than long-term management objectives. Despite those setbacks, the FIPs created a structure that allowed work to continue even as governments changed.
“We worked on the FIP along three different administrations, each of which belonged to different political parties,” said Ernesto Godelman, Executive Director at CeDePesca. “Even within some of them, there were more than one Subsecretary of Fisheries at the national level and more than one Secretary of Fisheries at the provincial level. When officials changed, sometimes we’d have to start all over. Sometimes the officials were more receptive, sometimes less. But within time everybody got aligned, and the latter administrations were very collaborative with the finalization of the process and now, with the implementation of the Action Plans.”
A major focus of the FIPs was improving scientific monitoring and ecosystem management. In provincial waters, stakeholders partnered with the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco to help build an observer program capable of collecting information on bycatch and ecosystem impacts. That data ultimately became critical to achieving certification for the fleet committed with such program.
The National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) evaluates the shrimp stock and continued improving stock assessment methods. Onshore, the major challenge was to create a management decision formal procedure. Offshore, one of the most important reforms involved hake bycatch. At the beginning of the FIP, there was no formal bycatch limit. Over time, the fishery introduced a rule capping hake bycatch at 20%. Monitored in real time, when catches exceed that threshold, fishing areas are closed and vessels must relocate. Additional measures were also introduced to protect spawning shrimp and strengthen ecosystem protections.
The Argentine red shrimp fisheries ultimately achieved MSC certification through years of technical work, collaboration, and institutional reform. But participants say one of the most important outcomes was the trust built between scientists, government agencies, companies, and NGOs that historically had not worked closely together — particularly between provincial and federal authorities.
The process also demonstrated how long fisheries improvement can take, especially when science, governance, and political systems evolve slowly, but steadily. Today, the fishery’s MSC certification represents more than market access or sustainability branding. It reflects more than a decade of effort to create stronger management systems, improve scientific understanding, and coordinate oversight across one of Argentina’s most important fisheries.
“The story is not finished,” said Godelman. “We need to address several conditions regarding the impacts on the ecosystem and harvest control rules. A sort of coalition is working to solve them: research institutions, governments, NGOs, all absolutely committed to consolidate this great achievement. And last, but not least, we need to enhance the commitment and the sense of ownership by the crews. That will help strengthen the future of the certification.”
-Chase Martin