Spain, with more than 8,600 boats and 150,000 indirect jobs, is the great European fishing power. Catches of fish and seafood they suppose 16.3% of all that of the Union, but 28% of the total value. And yet, over the last few years, the fishing sector has suffered a ‘perfect storm’.
While the illegal captures they do not stop growing all over the world (including Spain), the need to balance economic development with the conservation of community fishing grounds has put us on the ropes.
A ticking time bomb. At dawn, on December 11, the European Union unanimously approved, fishing opportunities for next year. The Commission had proposed a reduction in the days on which the Mediterranean fleet could practice trawling: from the current 130 to 27. Spain, as the main affected party, was against it.
In 2019, the EU approved a multi-year plan to protect the demersal fish populations of the Mediterranean and, in this way, ensure the exploitation of these marine biological resources. A transitional period was included five years in which “the number of days on which boats with trawl nets go fishing has been progressively reduced” and other types of measures.
It is 2025. That is, now it was time to apply the entire battery of restrictions and the conflict has broken out.
Because? Above all, because the bulk of the initiative affected a good number of commercial species such as hake, mullet, Mediterranean red prawn, deep-sea prawn, Moorish prawn or crayfish.
Avoiding the problem… Finally, the agreement will allow the same fishing days to be maintained as in 2024 as long as different measures are applied (from collecting less fish to respecting closures in certain areas to a comprehensive change in fishing gear).
As our colleague Miguel Ayuso explained”it is a squaring of the circle which, probably, is not going to convince either fishermen or environmentalists.” Some because they will have to fish with many more restrictions and make large investments; the others because they will see it as insufficient.
…but, of course, not solving it. Spain continues to be a giant in everything that has to do with the agroindustrial and food sector. However, as we have seen over the years, the sector combines leading companies with poorly coordinated groups, without financial capacity and little strategic vision in the long term.
We have already seen how other agri-food giants they declined and entered into a ‘bankruptcy’ productive. The big question is whether we will be able to avoid the same fate.
Image | Romanos Senikidis