Luis Planas: Spain's fisheries management measures in the Mediterranean are yielding results

In addition to cutting fishing days, Spain is committed to applying other measures such as selectivity in fishing gear, with the direct involvement of the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which has earmarked 500,000 euros for a pilot project being developed with the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to manufacture specific fishing nets to protect juvenile fish.

For this reason, the minister considered that a comprehensive approach was necessary and that the European Commission should carry out a scientific assessment of the measures already in place, and that these should not only focus on reducing fishing effort. Furthermore, he stressed the need to take into account their socio-economic effects in order to minimise the impact on the viability and survival of the fleet.

The day after the visit to Vigo, the minister completed a working agenda with the European Union Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virgilijus Sinkevicius, in Alicante, where they held a meeting with representatives of the sector, scientific institutions and non-governmental organisations to learn about the situation in the Mediterranean and the implementation of the management plan.

The Atlantic and the Mediterranean offer very different fishing particularities that make up Spain's strength in this activity, and which, according to the minister, share the same objective: to make the continuous improvement of the state of marine resources compatible with sustainable and profitable fishing.

The minister reiterated that Spain is "firmly committed to improving the state of resources in the Mediterranean" because it is aware of the delicate situation in which resources find themselves. He explained that the Government has opted for a working method of close collaboration between the Administration, the sector and the scientific community. The balance that can be made is that, so far, there are satisfactory results in achieving the objectives of the management plan for trawling in the Mediterranean with the least possible damage to socio-economic fishing activity.

Planas reiterated that the multi-annual EU plan for the Mediterranean must be based on balanced measures with a comprehensive approach, based on scientific foundations and with sufficient time to assess the effects of those already implemented before deciding on new actions. In any case, the measures to be adopted must take the socio-economic effects and the viability and survival of the fleet into account, he reiterated. The minister recalled that Spain has proposed a plan of complementary measures in terms of closed seasons and more selective trawling gear.

Trawling is particularly relevant in the Mediterranean, with 580 vessels representing 75% of the national total. Overall, the fleet operating in this sea consists of 2,279 vessels, 27% of the national fleet, which caught 69,958 tonnes of fish in 2020, 5% less than in the previous year.

After the meeting with the sector, the minister and the European commissioner visited the port and fish market of Santa Pola, the most representative of the province of Alicante (25% of sales).

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