The crews of several purse seine boats fishing at the estuaries of Vigo and Pontevedra still cannot believe what they have seen at sea for days. “I’ve never seen that in my life, okay. That amount of xouba in February… and legal size!Said one of the ship owners last week. Sardines colonize estuaries with no other species, especially horse mackerel, which often serves as a refuge for those unable to travel north to join xarda (mackerel) or anchovy expeditions. And the thing is, even though we had a difficult time before the pandemic, sardines have already recovered. so much that The governments of Spain and Portugal are committing to raise the catch limit again for this year, exceeding 50,000 tonnes for both countries..
Minister of Agriculture and Food of the neighboring country, Maria do Ceu Antunesmade a joint request during his visit to the A Poveira canning factory in Póvoa de Varzim. He was “confident” to the media that he could persuade the European Commission, which oversees both governments’ decisions to save the species that hit rock bottom in 2017. Although April announced that the news is expected to be positive.
“The quota we want to be applied to Portugal and Spain is over 50 thousand tons, which means that it will be over 30 thousand tons for our country. This will provide added value for the fishing and processing industry.”
if it happened advance will be at least 10% compared to 45,000 tons installed in 2022. And as the minister rightly pointed out, the Portuguese fleet will benefit most from the harmful distribution, which leaves only 33.5% of the shared quota to Spain, which is divided between the fishing areas in the Bay of Cádiz and the waters of Cádiz. Northwest Cantabrian.
The campaign, which started in Spanish waters last year, was pushed forward one month in total at the request of the industry. 14,827 tons for purse seine fleet8,668 were for registered ships in the Northwest Cantabrian Sea. In addition, 381,074 kilos have been reserved for xeito artisanal fishermen, who are now taking full advantage of the huge abundance of xouba in the Rías Baixas. 6,586 kilos of sardines have been sold so far this year in Galician markets.At an average price of 3.63 euros per kilo.
Deals
“We caught less sardines for a while, because stocks the biologics were in a very low density state. We made the change and amount is enough todayAccording to the Lusa agency, Maria do Céu Antunes is not only to get more prey, but also to have the perspective to sustain it for a longer period of time.”
During his visit to the cannery, the Minister also claimed that the fleet was on the other side. rail working for reaching an agreement with the country’s canning industry, something that follows “with great interest”. This is intended to force companies to allocate a third of their catch to this processing industry. “We hope it will be established quickly,” added Maria do Céu Antunes.
Likewise, this August national sardine certification processSomething that the ships of the Galician Seine Owners’ Association (Acerga) also follow.
Fleet from Pontevedra to the Cantabrian Sea
With sardines without horse mackerel and still uncaught, Galician waters are like a minefield for the purse-seiner fleet of 146 units. Boats go out but can barely catch some prey. For this reason, the start of the xarda (mackerel) and anchovy coastal seasons is a breath of fresh air for boats that can move due to their size.
Few fleets that decide to travel from the province of Pontevedra to the Cantabrian Sea are already in the fishing area (mostly), on the way or planning to leave this week.
Both campaigns are shaping up to be the most important expedition for this fleet in recent years due to the severe scarcity of horse mackerel, which does not come close to the Galician coast given the abundance of sardines (catch), in region VIIIc from Fisterra to the Basque Country.