Plea to delay conservation plan
THE NATIONAL government’s plan to conserve stocks of demersal fish (aka groundfish) in the Mediterranean could cause irreparable damage to the local fishing industry, Santa Pola town hall claims.
On Tuesday the council approved a motion by the Partido Popular (PP) in support of the fishing sector, which was backed by all parties except Compromís, who abstained.
It called for the application of the plan – which would reduce the number of days that trawlers can fish on by 10%, rising to 40% by 2025 – to be suspended.
The order was designed to protect just six species (white prawn, red prawn, hake, red mullet, Dublin Bay prawn and giant red shrimp) but the reduction of fishing days would also prevent them from catching other species, including mackerel and blue whiting, amongst others, according to the PP council.
The fishermen’s guild has lodged several objections and proposals, and pointed out that they already work fewer hours per day and days per week than France, Italy or Malta.
“Each boat is a business, most of them family ones, and if they do not work they do not earn and if they do not earn they cannot pay their workers or maintenance expenses, which in the fishing sector are very high,” said a council spokesman.
He insisted the socio-economic consequences, the results of the plan so far, and the real hours they spend fishing must be taken into account.
Socialist (PSOE) MP and ex-mayoress of Santa Pola, Yolanda Seva offered to work with fishermen’s guilds, noting the goverment has already agreed not to make further reductions in 2021 without evaluating the impact of the plan and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the sector.