Scientists have gone head-to-head with Portugal and Spain’s fishing fleets by again requesting a zero sardine catch next season.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) opines that only a total ban on sardine fishing off the Iberian coast will save the species from obliteration.
ICES scientists claim that due to the reduction in stocks that has been seen over the past years, “there should be zero captures in 2019,” as adult sardines stocks have been falling since 2006.
ICES advises the European Commission which can intervene if it feels that Spain and Portugal have set the catch too high. How it will react to this second call for zero fishing remains to be seen but Portugal Fisheries Minister, Ana Paula Vitorino, has a way of getting a goodly tonnage agreed in Brussels, whatever the scientists say.
The scientists claim that a zero catch policy for 2019 would enable a 10% increase in adult stocks and give the species a breathing space to recover. In the meantime, the public should get used to eating mackerel which remain plentiful.
Portugal’s fishing groups set sail on May 1st after a ban, saying there were plenty of fish in the sea, sardines among them but low catches have underscored the scientific opinion that a crisis is looking and unless drastic action is taken, the days of a plentiful supply of sardines sizzling on grills across the country may be at an end.
The current fishing season ends at the end of July, after which time, work begins to establish stocks and to decide on 2019 quotas.
