Encourage Capital has worked with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and The Rockefeller Foundation to develop an impact-investing strategy supporting the implementation of sustainable fishing improvements in the distressed common hake fishery in Chile. The Merluza Strategy is a hypothetical 17.5millionimpactinvestmenttorestorethehakefisherytoitsfullbiologicalandeconomicpotential.The17.5 million would fund the implementation of comprehensive fishery management improvements across the fishery, acquire 36% of the total fishing rights (or "quota") in the fishery, and create a new hake processing and distribution business incorporating jumbo squid products and sales. The Merluza Strategy targets the generation of a 16.4% base-case equity return with upside potential up to 35%, while simultaneously restoring hake stock to 75% of its biomass at Maximum Sustainable Yield (BMSY), generating $104 million in additional income for fishers divided among nearly 1,800 fishers across 12 caletas and delivering 136 million additional legal hake meals-to-market annually
