Minister of the Sea, Ana Paula Vitorino, and the European Commission are at the opposite end of the scale when it comes to next year’s sardine catch with the minister going for 14,000 tonnes and the EC’s advisory body opting for total sardine fishing ban.
On October 20, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) recommended the complete suspension of sardine fishing off Portugal and Spain for the 2018 season, causing widespread upset within the offshore fishing industry.
Ana Paula Vitorino then countered this ban with a proposal of catch limits between 13,500 and 14,000 tons for 2018, but after discussions, Viotorino has had to relay the ’medium bad’ news that there will be sardine fishing bans over large areas of ocean but some landed tonnage will be allowed. This especially will affect fishing fleets setting out from ports in the north and central coastal regions.
The choice of sea area to have the fishing ban is linked to traditional breeding grounds for this most Portuguese of fishes. This is a debate over reproduction levels, with ICES wanting a year’s ban so stock levels can replenish the species through one untroubled breeding season.
The actual no-go zones will be drawn up by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) in consultation with fishermen.
The minister said that "discussions and meetings with the fishing communities will be held together with the IPMA, with scientific information to hand, in order to delimit areas in which there will be no fishing.”
Ana Paula Vitorino also said that a balance between the sustainability of the stock and the fishing communities must be guaranteed and added that a package of measures has been established in order to comply with ICES recommendations.
A spokesman for the EU executive reiterated that Brussels is aware of the socio-economic and cultural importance of fishing in Portugal, which is why "it is very concerned about the potentially precarious state of Iberian sardine fishing," stressing that "authorities have to take this very seriously."
The allowable 2018 tonnage will fall somewhere in between what the fishermen want and what the scientists have gone for but both are aware there is a serious problem with shoal numbers.
