Mediterranean trawling under debate: between the conservation of fishing resources and the survival of the sector Mediterranean trawling under debate: between the conservation of fishing resources and the survival of the sector
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Mediterranean trawling under debate: between the conservation of fishing resources and the survival of the sector

January 01 from 2025 - 09: 00

The debate on trawling has been reopened following the approval of the reduction of fishing days by the European Commission. The sustainability of the practice has always been in question and now measures will be applied to reduce the "overexploitation of the marine environment".

Uncertainty clouds trawling: how much will EU measures cost the boats of the Marina Alta?

The need for measures in the Mediterranean

César Bordehore, a biologist from Dianense and professor of Marine Ecology at the University of Alicante, says that "it is not an arbitrary imposition from Brussels, but a reality that reflects the critical state of marine resources." The biologist reflects on the situation with an analogy: "Imagine a person with hypertension who ignores medical advice and does not take measures to control it. Eventually, his health will collapse." In this case, the expert points out, Hypertension is overfishing, the patient is the fishing industry, and the doctor is the European Commission. "If we continue to fish more than the ecosystem can regenerate, we will reach a point of no return, where marine species will not have time to reproduce," he warns.

The drastic reduction to 27 days of fishing has been one of the great controversies of the measure, "a number of days that the technical part of the Commission has considered as the optimal to avoid the disappearance of species or that they remain at critical levels," explains Bordehore and adds: "When we talk about fishing sustainability, it is like managing economic capital, if you spend more than you have, you are left with nothing." In this sense, he assures that overfishing generates a "technological response" that worsens the situation, such as the increase in engine power or more sophisticated equipment, which, despite the efforts, do not manage to catch more, because there is no more. "This generates a vicious circle that only accelerates the collapse and The fish does not collapse little by little, but suddenly, without warning. Although it should be noted that the sector is not at all to blame for the situation it has reached, because the legislation to prevent stocks from falling to current levels does not depend on them.

Marine experts are now working to make citizens aware of the need for these measures. "Fish and invertebrate populations are declining dramatically, and this has been proven. Catches in Dénia have dropped by 50% in the last 20 years and continue to decline", says Bordehore. The Dénia biologist sees a positive side to the whole process of implementing the new measures because "finally the fishing sector and the European Commission have realised that either we change things or fishing will disappear as a productive activity in the Mediterranean."

Basilio Otero, president of the National Federation of Brotherhoods, believes that the EU measures "are correct to achieve sustainability and are welcomed as necessary. It is better to fish less and sell well». However, there are some issues that the fishing sector believes are important to take into account and that have not been raised in Europe, such as «considering that fishing is done the same everywhere» or the need to establish agreements with countries that fish in shared territory such as the Mediterranean so that they "implement the same measures". Another fear is that "the import of foreign products is growing at the same rate as the fishing opportunities for European fishermen are decreasing," says the president of the National Federation of Fishermen's Guilds. For this reason, he points out the possibility of establish "a calendar for compliance with ecosystem standards" just like we European producers do."

More marine reserves, but well managed

Despite the nuances, the common goal is shared: to allow the marine environment to recover, because it is the only way to regain the productivity of a few decades ago without the ecosystem suffering so much that it can never be the same again. In order to guarantee this recovery, Bordehore raises the urgency of create more marine reserves on the high seas"Since the conflict depends not only on the quantity, but also on the size structure. The largest species are essential for reproduction, because they can generate between 40 and 50% of the fertility of a population, but they are the most fished," he specifies.

The biologist assures that, Ideally, 30% of the sea would need to be protected., since at the moment the protected areas are insignificant. "It would allow species to develop without fishing pressure, it would benefit biodiversity and, in the long term, also fishermen, since the recovered populations could repopulate adjacent areas." Along these lines, says Bordehore, a European project has recently been approved for a group of twenty partners from different universities to design a large network of offshore marine reserves and promote recovery.

Once again, the president of the National Federation of Fishermen's Guilds seems to agree with the scientific view of the matter and claims to be "a fan of marine reserves, but well-managed ones," he clarifies. He gives the example of Tabarca, "but there are others in Spain, which I am not going to name, that are marine reserves because they have the title of marine reserve, but they do not function as such." For this reason, he points out that when they are well managed, "The first few years are painful, but in the end the benefits outweigh the costs". In his view, Otero believes that this option It could "mean the disappearance of many people from the sea", but agrees that "it is a measure for the future, a very interesting model" that, if implemented, should be studied in a progressive manner.

"Although the competence in fishing is of the European Union, the Member States can anticipate and propose more efficient measures," says Bordehore, who also assures that, "the first measure that they should implement before anything else is to encourage, or rather, facilitate the scrapping of ships». Both the biologist and Otero point out that «there are many older boats and they are a problem for the owners. For this reason, fishermen have been demanding a solution in this area for a long time.» This proposal would imply State investment to remove these ships from the market and "extinguish" each company, a process that requires a lot of resources. "If they are not scrapped and the catch is getting smaller, companies go bankrupt," says the biologist.

In terms of measures, the marine ecology expert launches two more proposals to ensure the survival of the sector. "The second would be to encourage early retirement, The ideal would be to reduce the sector between ships and employees by 20 or 30%». The second of his propositions is ensure that the economic viability of the guilds does not depend on the catches made, but rather something fixed. "I think that the guilds should be sized and that income should be guaranteed and if the size is not reached, it should be paid with public money. Simply because fishing is a public concession, the fish under water is public, and a series of boats have an authorization to fish them and put them on the market as a service to the public."

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