anchoveta

But ICIJ, working with the Peruvian investigative reporting group IDL-Reporteros, obtained and analyzed records back to 2009 of more than 100,000 landings of anchoveta in northern and central ports, where 90 percent of fish arrives.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

The anchoveta is then conveyed to a massive scale that weighs several tons at a time.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

Indelesio Velásquez has fished anchoveta for 40 years, 25 of them as a fishing master.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

CHIMBOTE, Peru -- This northern port reeks of rotten fish year-round, but when anchoveta season begins in late November, its long row of factories belch oily columns of nauseating smoke that impregnate everything within miles.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

Peru is the world's second largest fishing nation after China, and 85 percent of its catch is anchoveta.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

Those 630,000 "missing" tons of anchoveta -- worth nearly $200 million as fishmeal -- were simply not counted.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

Each year up to 6 million metric tons of anchoveta reach the docks of more than 100 fishmeal plants, along with others that can it and make byproducts.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

Researchers at the Cayetano Heredia University calculated that if Peru's 100 fishmeal plants worked around the clock -- 9,000 tons an hour -- they could process 30 times more anchoveta than the annual quota set by the government.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

Ten large companies own more than 60 percent of Peru's anchoveta rights.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012

Deputy fisheries minister Jaime Reyes Miranda acknowledged in an interview with ICIJ that there are "serious problems" with scales at fishmeal plants and said the government is trying to find a solution to make sure anchoveta numbers are not manipulated.

The Center for Public Integrity: Peru's vanishing fish: Rampant cheating and lax controls plague industry The Center for Public Integrity 2012