Asturian fishermen are more afraid of the announcement of a storm coming from Brussels: “At least you’re protecting yourself from the second in port,” reasoned one of the nearly two hundred sailors who would be affected by the intended practice in the Principality. European regulation on access to deep waters. This regulation aims to ban all bottom fishing (trawl, long line, fishing line, etc.) in 94 fishing zones in France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. “The idea is preposterous and has no scientific support,” argues the Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds of Asturias. But there is a threat and it puts the fleet in a difficult position.
Asturian ships, which can see their traditional fields of activity as limited, make up 40 of the 248 ships that make up the regional fleet. That equates to 17 percent, but the data is misleading because, in turn, they represent 37 percent of Asturian fishing power (measured in motor horsepower). In addition, these boats contribute half of the catch sold under Principality rules (a full 48 percent according to 2021 statistics) and the same amount (52.5 percent) to the initial sale value.
Nearly a hundred fishing sites have vetoed downstream gear, as revealed last week at summer courses in La Granda, which devoted a day to analyzing the present and future of fisheries. European Union Fisheries (DG Mare) will decapitate the Asturian fleet and lead to a collapse in the sector: there will be ships that will have to moor, others will have to look for alternatives, increasing the pressure to extract minerals in other regions. Fisheries and the market will suffer in terms of the variety of products sold.
At least Asturian fishermen are not alone in their opposition to the bottom gear veto: the European Bottom Fishing Alliance (EBFA), which represents more than 20,000 fishermen and more than 7,000 Europeans and is part of the Spanish Fisheries Confederation (Cepesca), rejects the request. the intended application of the deep water access regulation. In the EBFA’s view, “the consequences of this sanction law will be dramatic for all European fisheries” and calls for its withdrawal “given the accepted scientific gaps, lack of appropriate consultation and socio-economic impact analysis”. Like the lack of support from the Council”.
In Spain, the Ministry of Fisheries opposes the approval of the proposed regulation, at least in its current terms, as approved by Isabel Artime, director general of Sustainable Fisheries from Luan, at Avilés a few days ago. Also, the Principality’s Fisheries General Directorate, in agreement with its counterparts from other Cantabrian communities, refuses to cut off the intended fishing grounds.