Fishing for sardines is forbidden from Saturday 12 October
Aktualisiert am 10. Oktober 2019 von Ralf Hoesen
The fishing and unloading of sardines will be banned from Saturday, as the State Secretary for Fisheries published today in Diário da República.
„From 12:00 on 12 October it is prohibited to catch, keep on board and unload sardines with any fishing gear“, the decision states. The sardine fishery was „managed with the aim of ensuring the gradual recovery of stocks in accordance with the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy“.
For this reason, the sector has been decommissioned every year, measures have been taken to protect young people and annual limits have been set for fishing opportunities.
The sardine fishery was resumed on 3 June, but with management measures and catch limits in place, after being closed in mid-September 2018.
The state of the resource will be assessed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea to determine fishing opportunities for Portugal and Spain for 2020.
In September, the Minister confirmed that the sardine quota for this year was up to 9,000 tonnes and remained cautious about the possibility of increasing catches in 2020.
For the Iberian sardine organisations, however, this figure is insufficient, as they argue that the available biomass will allow an update of the possibilities up to about 19,000 tonnes in the course of this year, according to the Lusa agency.
