Cantabria has 284 kilometers of coastline, with seven ports and a great fishing tradition

Cantabria approves its first Law on Maritime Fishing, Shellfish and Aquaculture

SPAIN
Thursday, February 25, 2021, 08:00 (GMT + 9)

The community was the only one with the sea that lacked its own regulation of fishing activities

The Parliament of Cantabria has unanimously approved the Law on Maritime Fishing, Shellfish and Aquaculture, a regulation promoted by the Ministry of Rural Development, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Environment to provide the sector with a legislative framework that encompasses all related areas with fishing activities and offer the sector, both professional and recreational, a safer environment when carrying out the activity and give it the importance it has.

Before its final approval, the area councilor, Guillermo Blanco, stressed the importance of the new law due to the need that existed in Cantabria, "the only autonomy of the sea without its own regulation in the field of fishing activities", to have “A basic text, but very necessary for the development of all fishing activities in Cantabria”.

“We are a region with 284 kilometers of coastline, with seven ports and a great fishing tradition. We couldn't afford to be without our own fishing law. We are the owners of our waters and we must be able to organize their management according to our criteria, giving security to the sector ”, Blanco stressed. The Minister of Fisheries has pointed out that this new regulation “tries to fill the legislative void that we have been dragging since Cantabria assumed powers in matters of fishing and that it has been supplemented to date with sectoral regulations, very segmented and, sometimes, confusing. ”.

Aprovechamiento sostenible

In order to achieve orderly, systematic and coherent fishing regulations, the Government of Cantabria has approved a fishing law that is based on the basic principles that govern the sustainable use of marine resources and is framed within the right to a adequate environment and in the duties of conservation and rational use of natural resources.

It seeks to comply with the objectives set by the Common Fisheries Policy when it comes to guaranteeing that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term and are managed in a manner consistent with the objectives of generating economic, social and employment benefits, as well as contributing to the availability of food products. It will regulate the specific competences of the fishing field, such as the conservation, protection and regeneration of marine resources in the interior waters of Cantabria; the exercise of sea fishing, shellfish farming, algae exploitation and aquaculture; the management of the fishing sector on the basis of state regulations, and the commercialization and transformation of fishing products. Also professional diving, nautical-sports and underwater education, as well as professional nautical-fishing education.

On the other hand, it will allow Cantabria to declare in inland waters protected areas due to their special interest for the conservation and regeneration of marine resources; establish the procedure for the conservation and regeneration of marine resources, and define the figure of the production areas for mollusks and other marine invertebrates.

Similarly, it establishes that extractive activities may only be practiced with expressly permitted arts, techniques, modalities and species; enables the possibility of setting censuses to manage extractive capacity, and defines the concept of professional maritime fishing, including the capture of species of crustaceans, mollusks and other marine invertebrates with gears not specific for these species.

Establishes for the first time the concept of a license for professional sea fishing on foot; regulates recreational maritime fishing, and shellfish activity, setting three types of license: from boat, on foot and diving, and regulates the possibility of granting shellfish authorizations, as well as the extraction of algae and clay.

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