The fishing sector of the entire Mediterranean Sea area has its sights set on what is happening at this time in Brussels. There, the European Commission’s proposal to reduce the number of fishing days for trawling by 79% by 2025 is being debated. A measure on the basis of which fishermen from Spain, Italy and France have raised their voices to the skies, since they point out that a reduction from 130 to 27 annual days of activity for trawlers by 2025 would mean a reduction in the number of fishing days per year. 130 to 27 annual days of activity would mean the disappearance of the sector. “We are going to negotiate, to see what happens. But reducing more fishing days is unfeasible,” warns Iván Pérez, president of the Fishermen’s Guild of Formentera, to La Voz de Ibiza from the Belgian city.
This Tuesday is the second consecutive day of meetings between representatives of governments, the fishing industry and the European Union. In the afternoon the first proposals resulting from these meetings are expected from the Commission. “The first ones will be rejected,” Perez told La Voz de Ibiza. Only for the morning or noon this Wednesday there will be clarifications. “It will be a night of intense negotiations,” said the leader of the Formentera fishermen. However, Perez himself has pointed out that from his sector they will not accept a further reduction in fishing days, which have decreased by 60% since 2019. “Who is going to go out to work only 100 days a year? You have to work all year round.” So where does the negotiation go? According to Pérez himself, the fishermen are “on the red line” in terms of the number of days they have enabled for their activity. However, he admits that there is margin in “issues such as closed seasons, increase of protected areas or gear selectivity -the capacity of a fishing method to capture specifically the desired species and sizes, minimizing undesired catches-“. In this sense, Perez admits that although “there are already many areas of Formentera and Balaeares protected, they could be increased, there is room in that sense”. But he warns: “What is clear is that I will not allow a disproportionate increase in protected areas here and not elsewhere, because we are already one of the communities with more protected areas”. In the case of moving forward with such a measure, “the governments of France, Italy and Spain will have to put their foot down,” says Pérez. And he sums up: “It will be difficult, but I am optimistic.
“Hidden issues” in proposal to reduce trawl fishing
During Monday, Perez and other fisheries leaders from around the Mediterranean raised their concerns with Costas Kadis, the Cypriot who was recently appointed as the new EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans. Although Perez himself admits that Kadis has little room to support them. “The new commissioner cannot push a position of his own. He has come up against measures put forward by the European Commission and because of legal issues he cannot change the approach. It is as if his hands were tied.” -About the European Commission, they argue that the reduction of days is necessary to maintain sustainability…
-But we don’t know what the maximum sustainable yield is. They don’t say.
-Why?
-Because they are not really interested. There are hidden political issues and other countries involved.
-What makes you assume that?
-We talk to local researchers who provide data to the European Commission. They tell us that things are going very well. But they ignore them or don’t want to see them. Although they rely on complex models to analyze these things, the fact is that in the Balearics we have already had maximum sustainable yield for two years.
-From the Commission, do they claim positive results achieved through cutbacks?
-They are proposing more measures without knowing whether the reductions of recent years have worked. They have not taken into account the socio-economic impact or the ecological footprint. They just want to make us disappear. Perez, however, believes that the proposal of such a “drastic measure has been a good thing. If they had come with a proposal to reduce by 10-15% it would have been accepted. But such a big cut has opened the eyes of governments, the EU and NGOs. Although they do not rule out legal action and a blockade by all fishing vessels (in Ibiza and Formentera there is a strike until Tuesday, in principle), Perez urges calm. “Now the only thing left are the negotiations. We have to go step by step”.
What is trawling and what are its consequences?
Bottom trawling is a technique that causes controversy around the world. It involves the use of heavy nets to scrape the ocean floor to catch fish. While it is a mainstay to sustain the volumes of the fishing industry, environmental groups point out that it has a detrimental effect on marine life, as it involves the accidental killing of numerous marine species, such as turtles, birds and mammals, which endangers ecosystems. Limiting trawling, the European Commission’s proposal, is part of the European Union’s policies to control the activity in order to ensure the sustainability of the activity. According to the EU website, “fishery resources are not unlimited” and “overfishing can affect the reproductive capacity of stocks”. Therefore, “without some control” it is believed that “some fish stocks could be depleted, or their capture could cease to be economically viable”.
