Councillor Sánchez Haro at a catching activity in Barbate fishing trap. (Photo: Junta de Andalucía)

Andalusia demands management plan to increase bluefin tuna catch

SPAIN
Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 02:20 (GMT + 9)

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of Andalusia Rodrigo Sánchez Haro demanded that a management plan be implemented "at once", starting in 2019, to increase catches of bluefin tuna, arguing that "there is ample scientific evidence" that justifies it.

"We do not agree on keeping the restrictions, given the spectacular recovery that the stock has experienced," said the Andalusian official during his participation in a catching trip in Barbate trap, in Cádiz.

Sanchez Haro noted that, not in vain, the level of breeders is "at a historic high", which, in his opinion, "supports this step more in search of both the sustainability of the species and an activity that generates in Andalusia a thousand jobs".

In this regard, he regretted that by 2018 no greater quota could be obtained to guarantee a "successful season" for the four fishing traps from Cadiz (Barbate, Tarifa, Zahara de los Atunes and Conil de la Frontera) and the 180 ships, mainly from the fleet using line and hand gear in the Strait and longliners of Carboneras (Almería), which depend on bluefin tuna in the autonomous community.

He also expressed regret for the "insufficient defense" of the interests of European, Spanish and Andalusian fishermen by the European Commission (EC) in the latest negotiations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

For the head of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of Andalusia, the resolutions agreed at the ICCAT Council, meeting in Marrakech (Morocco) in November 2017, "were disappointing", because they were short for the sector, which deserves its effort to be recognized."

The possibilities established for the Andalusian tuna traps, amounting to 1,293 tonnes, in the words of Rodrigo Sánchez, have been "clearly insufficient", far from the 1,422 tonnes of bluefin tuna assigned in 2008, which fell to 637 tonnes in 2011.

The Ministry recognizes the effort and sacrifice made by the tuna fishing sector, the hand line sector of the Strait and longliners throughout these years in which progressive reductions in the bluefin tuna TACs have been established. Sacrifice "which to a large extent is one of the causes of the confirmed increase in tuna stocks.”

The Barbate fishing trap, also authorized for tuna fattening, sells Petaca Chico brand and was awarded in 2014 the Andalusian Prizes for Agriculture and Fisheries. Together with the other three facilities in Cadiz (Tarifa, Zahara de los Atunes and Conil de la Frontera), the production value, according to 2016 data, reaches EUR 9.7 million, an amount to which another EUR 7.6 million gross added value must be added, which is 13.1 per cent more than in the previous year.

It is, in short, from Rodrigo Sánchez's point of view, "a sustainable fishing gear with a millenary tradition that generates wealth and 300 direct jobs" and that, as such, Andalusia must protect.

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