“It would be the death of the sector. If we already have to bring from outside species that we have here in abundance, approving the cut would be the doom”. This was the harsh prognosis of Iván Pérez, president of the Fishermen’s Guild of Formentera, in view of the possibility that the European Union will approve a 79% reduction in the days of activity allowed for trawling in the entire Mediterranean Sea.
In this context, the fishermen of the Pitusas area do not rule out that the strike that began on Monday, and which in principle will continue until Tuesday, will continue if their demands are not met. “The Commission has not wanted to listen to our scientists and has imposed its criteria: to make disappear what it does not like. It has become clear that they want to end the trawling sector, but it is an essential sector to have fresh fish and for tourism,” added Perez in statements given to Radio Ibiza. The leader is in Brussels, where he is holding meetings with the aim of pressuring European leaders to reject the measure. “The Commission justifies itself with scientific reports that have been invented. If you remove the trawlers, what is not fished here will be brought from outside, but at stratospheric prices,” he said, referring to species that abound in the area, such as octopus, squid, ray and morralla. And he has not ruled out legal action if the measure goes ahead, in addition to extending the strike.
Measures “on the fly”.
In a similar line has expressed the president of the Fishermen’s Guild of Ibiza, Antoni Tur. “We were already at the red line, at the acceptable limit. This ends up killing you, the fishermen are not even going to consider it with this quota of 27 days. It is not at all viable,” he said. And he warned that the measure: “It would mean closing many fishermen’s associations and fishmongers (because many can not work only with fish from outside) and much industry surrounding the fishing fleet”. Tur has also pointed out that “there is no study that supports such a measure” and that “these are measures that fall from the sky, from people who have not come to see how they work here”. On the possibility that the strike will continue beyond Tuesday, the leader has left the door open: “We go a little on the fly”.
