An opinion, authored by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (CIES), released this Friday, October 20, asks that sardines not be fished in 2018 in Portugal. The Government has already reacted, promising "to set daily and monthly catch limits".
In this opinion, CIES defends the interdiction due to low levels of stock of the last decade. In a note sent to the newsrooms, the Office of the Ministry of the Sea says that the "fluctuations" in the stock sardines are partly to blame for 'environmental factors external to fishing'.
Even so, the “general state of the resource does not allow to ease the management measures nor to maintain the current level of catches”, adds the same communiqué.
For this reason, the Government will hold "working meetings with Spain and then with the European Commission, the first meeting being already scheduled, for consultation on the new management measures to be adopted." The objective is also to implement programs and measures to protect and support the growth of the stock.
Namely: “increased programs and measures to protect and support the growth of the stock, reinforce the lines of investigation, with a new project centered on the knowledge of environmental variables, execute a repopulation project developed by IPMA, delimit “non-fishing” areas to protect juveniles” and “increase the sardine season”.
According to the Government, "sardines are a resource of strategic interest for national fishing, whose environmental, economic and social sustainability must be guaranteed, given the impact of this resource on fishing communities, the canning industry and fish trade, on sector exports, in gastronomy and tourism».
In the same note, it is also read that the «Government is committed to maintaining sardine fishing at levels that allow the recovery of the resource. For this it is necessary to continue and strengthen sustainable and responsible management.”
«The advice of the ICES, known today, shows that the measures to reduce fishing effort, taken by the sector, made it possible to stop the fall in the state of the resource after an 80% reduction in the recruitment of sardines between 2004 and 2014. In 2016 and 2017, the sardine biomass increased slightly, which allowed the limit of discharges in the order of 17 thousand tons jointly by Portugal and Spain», concludes the Office of the Minister of the Sea.
In July of this year, ICES asked to stop fishing for sardines for 15 years. At the time, Miguel Cardoso, president of Olhãopesca – Association of Fisheries Producers of the Algarve, told the Sul Informação that this was "unthinkable" and would mark "the end of siege fishing in Portugal, the canning industry and freezing".
On the other side, Quercus then asked the Government to follow the recommendations of the ICES.
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