All the municipal groups have supported an institutional declaration in defence of the fishing sector that will be debated in today's plenary session. The text analyses the difficult situation of the fishing sector in Calpe and by extension the whole province and the Spanish Mediterranean, due to the continuous limitations imposed by the European Union. This situation is now even worse with the proposal of the European Commission's Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) to reduce fishing days by 79% for next year, which will mean that each trawler will be able to fish an average of 27 days a year.
The document states that ‘if the current regulation that allows trawlers to fish only 125 days a year is already practically unviable for any company, if this new proposal is approved, it would be the death certificate of our trawling sector’.
On the other hand, the draft resolution of the European Union's Sub-Directorate General for National Fishing Grounds and Waters establishing catch ceilings for Mediterranean red shrimp would mean that bottom trawlers could only catch up to 50 kg of red shrimp per week (10 kg per day from Monday to Friday), with proportional adjustments for incomplete weeks, with a deadline of 31 December 2024 or until the available quota is exhausted. If the usual expenses of a fishing boat when it goes out to catch red shrimp amount to 1,200 euros per day, it obviously does not add up.
The institutional declaration considers that the European Union's fisheries policy does not meet the objectives of social, economic and environmental balance because it leads to a reduction in jobs and a loss of quality of life for workers' families and because it prevents companies from making a profit and the restrictions end up condemning them to disappear. Nor does it meet environmental balance criteria because the studies carried out are not appropriate to the type of vessel, the fishing grounds or the species.
The letter states that ‘The European proposal means the death of the fishing sector, in fact the data of the Fishermen's Guilds of our province estimate that in the last ten years more than 50% of employment in the sector has been destroyed’.
Furthermore, the declaration denounces the fact that the EU does not make public the conclusions of the Multiannual Fisheries Plan and, therefore, it is considered that there is no data to decide on these cuts. Nor is it known how the calculation of the kilos allocated to each vessel has been made.
For all these reasons, all the municipal groups of Calpe Town Council agree to request the European Commission not to approve the proposal of the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) consisting of a 79% reduction in fishing days.
They also urge the Spanish Government to insist on the defence of the Mediterranean fishing sector and not to allow even one more reduction in the quota of working days per year, which is already very low at present. The Spanish Government is also asked to draw up a Management Plan for the fishing sector, evaluating its resources and seeking the sustainability of the sector.
The Calpe corporation requests the creation of a network of scientists and members of the fishing sector to study and investigate the fishing situation in the Mediterranean, involving the Universities of the province of Alicante.