Discards of the argentine commercial fleet directed to the hake fishery. 1990-1997 period. Discards of the commercial fleet directed to hake were estimated in weight and number of individuals. The dynamics of the ice-chilling and freezer fleets per area and quarter and processes of discarding were analyzed. The estimation method was based on the comparison of landings and surveys lenght composition, the latter filtered by the selectivity of the mesh used by the commercial fleet to rebuild the lenght distribution of catches. It is concluded that discards had an annual variation of 42,000 t-148,000 t in the 1990-1997 period, which represented between 30% and 50% in weight and 11%-24% in number of actual catches. The analysis of age groups affected by discards showed that over 90% corresponded to individuals age 1 and the rest to specimens age groups 0-2.