In defence of the local fishing industry, the political groups in Calp unanimously supported a motion at the last plenary session calling on the government and the other relevant public administrations to stop the APA 423/2020 regulation, the management plan for demersal resources for the conservation of certain species in the Mediterranean.
This is a plan adopted by the Spanish Government in application of a European regulation to establish biological limits that allow sustainable fishing and which imposes restrictions on fishing.
The regulation establishes a new effort regime for bottom trawling in the Mediterranean, which provides for an annual reduction in the fishing days allocated to each vessel in this modality, which may be up to 40% compared to the activity carried out up to now. This fact is worrying for the fishing industry as it "implies the impossibility of carrying out the usual fishing tasks in a calendar year", as stated in the motion supported by all the political groups.
Furthermore, they believe that this reduction in the number of fishing days will mean the loss of jobs in the professional fishing sector, since economic returns will be greatly reduced by the reduction in the number of effective fishing days allocated to each of the vessels.
For this reason, the various political groups in Calp Town Council have committed themselves, in the motion that has been approved, to urging the central administration and the other people responsible for the management of fisheries resources to stop the entry into force of this plan in order to allow for better study and implementation of this initiative.
They will also insist on a study of the socio-economic impact of the implementation of this plan on the sector and, furthermore, that the reduction in the fishing effort of the trawl fleet be taken into account in this document.