The European Commission urged Member States on Tuesday to ban trawling in at least 20% of each country’s waters by March 2024.This is a preliminary step to phase out this activity, whose horizon is set as 2030, from all marine protected areas. The proposal has raised alarm in the provincial sector, which in recent years has been severely punished by cutting hours.
European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginius Sinkevicius said on Tuesday that the proposed actions restore marine ecosystems and reduce the impact of fishing activities. According to the text of the plan, by the end of March next year, Member States should take national measures or submit joint recommendations to phase out trawling in all existing protected areas and not allow it in newly created areas. The aim is to remove this method from all of them by 2030.
In addition, by the middle of this year, EU countries will have to set the limit on the maximum allowable length of the seafloor that can be adversely affected or lost by human pressure and take appropriate measures to enforce these thresholds.
Although it is not possible to quantify the impact of these measures, the European Commission’s proposal has raised concern in the Alicante fishing industry. 130 trawlers have already been affected by different cuts and are now barely able to fish 155 of the 240 days they took advantage of three years ago..
Juan Mulet, secretary of the Provincial Brethren Federation, currently, About 30% of Alicante’s waters are protected at the request of fishermen., so that in some areas the event is completely prohibited, while in others it can be carried out at certain times. “We don’t know to what extent this measure will affect us, but any new cuts imposed on us could already mean the last straw for the industry, and will also be heavily penalized by other issues such as rising fuel cost or Social Security”.
Mulet regrets that all these cuts were made “without any work”. In the end, the feeling we all have is that they want to put an end to this type of fishing without taking into account that in our case it is a traditional art with minimal impact on the marine environment.or,” he emphasizes.