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Correspondence should be addressed to: G. Bigatti, LARBIM-IBIOMAR (CONICET), Boulevard Brown 2915 (U9120ACD), Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina email: [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The demand for high protein food is increasing, especially in developing countries (Woodcock & Benkendorff, 2008), encouraging the exploration of unconventional or underutilized resources. Several studies highlight the importance of marine resources and, particularly, marine gastropods on human diet (Manzano & Aranda, 1998; Leiva & Castilla, 2002; Vasconcelos et al., 2008). Marine gastropods represent high values on international markets, playing an important social role in artisanal fisheries (Leiva & Castilla, 2002; Vasconcelos et al., 2008) and contain low proportions of saturated fatty acids and high levels of unsaturated ones that are the most favourable for a healthy diet (Rudin, 1982; Isay & Busarova, 1984; Manzano & Aranda, 1998; Valenzuela & Nieto, 2003; D'Armas et al., 2010). Nevertheless, many gastropods could be unsafe for human consumption due to their ability to accumulate contaminants.
In Argentina, official gastropod landings have been reported since 1936 (Sánchez et al., 2012) but no catch regulations have not yet been implemented. In Atlantic northern Patagonian coasts, gastropods consumption and exploitation occur locally (Bigatti & Ciocco, 2008), and commercialization to national and international markets is starting to develop but without any official regulation. Therefore, many efforts have been made in order to increase information and studies aimed to propose gastropod fishery policies in this region (Bigatti et al., 2007, 2008; Bigatti & Ciocco, 2008; Penchaszadeh et al., 2009; Averbuj et al., 2010; Cumplido et al., 2010, 2011; Zabala et al., 2013; Averbuj et al., 2014). Some gastropods, such as Odontocymbiola magellanica, Buccinanops cochlidium, Buccinanops globulosus and Trophon geversianus, are seen as potential species for consumption and massive commercialization (Narvarte, 2006; Bigatti & Ciocco, 2008; Narvarte et al., 2008; Averbuj et al., 2010; Cumplido et al., 2010). Small gastropod species such as the genus Tegula and limpets of the genus Nacella are exploited in Chile and the latter is captured manually in the Atlantic coasts from 43°S (Conti et al., 2012a). Although those resources are abundant in all the Patagonian coasts, gastropod fisheries are restricted by weather conditions, closures by red tide and fluctuations (Elías &...