Luis Planas: Spain, France and Italy join forces to secure the future of Mediterranean fisheries

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, during the visit to the port of Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona)

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, today underlined the joint efforts being made by Spain, France and Italy to ensure the future of fishing in the Mediterranean Sea and to avoid further reductions in fishing days for the fishing fleet. He stressed that "fishing activity in the Mediterranean is more than just fishing, it is a territorial and social reality that forms part of our culture, of living, of working, and we want this reality as Mediterranean countries to be taken into account".

The minister visited the port of Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona) today, accompanied by representatives of the fishermen's guilds of Catalonia, with whom he had previously met. At the meeting, he explained the agreement reached between the three countries, which has taken the form of a joint declaration in defence of Mediterranean fishing interests.

He recalled that Spain has 2,200 fishing vessels in the Mediterranean, of which more than 600 are in Catalonia and 47 in Vilanova i la Geltrú. "In the last five years, with the aim of moving towards more sustainable fishing, much effort has been applied in Spain and we have compensated for this with selectivity measures, such as mesh sizes, or closed seasons," said the minister. He recalled that the Catalan fishing sector is a pioneer in adopting measures to protect fishery resources in the Mediterranean with temporary and spatial closures, and selectivity measures in nets to protect juvenile fish.

For this reason, Planas considers that there are alternatives to the drastic measures of continuing to reduce fishing days and asks that the efforts that the trawler fleets fishing in the Mediterranean have been making for years be valued. These are necessary and positive measures, "but at EU level we have to think about where we are going and our port of destination."

On 18 November, Luis Planas and his French and Italian counterparts signed a joint declaration calling for a moratorium on the multiannual management plan for the Mediterranean during 2025. The three countries will defend this position at the Council of Ministers on 9-10 December, where the total allowable catches and quotas for next year are to be approved.

The port of Vilanova i la Geltrú is the most important for the fishing fleet in the province of Barcelona and one of the most important in Catalonia. It is the one with the largest volume of catches and fleet in Barcelona and has a total of 47 vessels in operation. Most of them belong to the bottom trawl census (19, of which 17 can fish red shrimp) and smaller gears.

Non official translation