Balearic fishermen rally at the port of Palma against new European obligations

Several dozen fishermen from the Balearic Islands gathered this Monday, 19th of January, at the port of Palma. On a day when the artisanal fleet remained moored, they protested against the new obligations imposed by Europe on the sector.

Specifically, as explained to the media by the president of the Balearic Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds (FBCP), Domingo Bonnín, the parts of the regulation that most affect the archipelago’s fleet are the requirement to give four hours’ prior notice before arriving in port and the obligation to record all catches.

“What this regulation does, in its most philosophical sense, is treat us almost like criminals. They want us to record all our activities in the middle of the sea,” Bonnín said on Monday.

Although this regulation is easy to comply with for fleets operating in the Atlantic, he stressed that Mediterranean fishermen face a situation of “clear impossibility.”

“In the Balearic Islands, with a small fleet —266 vessels and 440 fishermen spread across the archipelago— and with working days of less than 12 hours, giving four hours’ notice before entering port linked to an estimate of catches is impossible,” he insisted.

Failure to comply with the regulation could lead to fines of up to €3,000 which, if repeated, could result in the loss of the right to fish.

“We could be left without a fishing sector,” Bonnín warned. “The Balearic fishing sector will die of success. If it had to fall, it should be due to a lack of fishing resources, but they are in good condition,” he added.

Later on Monday afternoon, Spanish fishermen’s guilds are scheduled to meet with the General Secretariat for Fisheries of the central government, mainly to address the possibility of reducing or eliminating the prior-notice requirement, which falls under state responsibility.

“I don’t want to be optimistic, but there could be an agreement,” Bonnín said. However, he noted that such changes would be of little use given that the prior notice is linked to an estimate of catches.

“Most of our boats, four hours before entering port, are still fishing and don’t know what they have on board. Crystal balls don’t exist. It’s not a matter of wanting or not wanting to comply, we do want to, because traceability affects our activity, but it’s impossible,” he stressed.

In addition, the president of the Balearic guilds pointed out that implementing this Electronic Fishing Logbook would mean doubling fishermen’s administrative workload, since catches are already counted upon arrival in port.

“We’re not office workers, we’re fishermen. And bureaucracy doesn’t go hand in hand with fishermen’s work. We can’t turn the deck of a fishing boat into an office,” he said.

If the proposed changes are not made, Bonnín said the boats will remain tied up in port due to the impossibility of bearing the cost of the fines. “It doesn’t matter whether you call it a strike or not,” he said.

The Director General for Fisheries of the regional government, Antoni M. Grau, accompanied the fishermen during the protest and supported their demands.

For the regional executive, he explained to the media, there should be no requirement for prior notice or for declaring catches before arriving in port.

“Obviously, knowing the catches is essential to manage resources, but it has to be something reasonable that makes fishermen’s lives easier,” he argued.

Grau attributed the restrictive nature of the new regulation to an “ideological issue of the previous European government” and expressed confidence that the current Fisheries Commissioner, Costas Kadis, would be able to introduce changes to what he described as “something outrageous.”

“We have a good relationship with the commissioner and we know he wants to change it, but he has the previous team and they are against it,” he said.

Regarding the meeting scheduled for that afternoon, the Director General expressed hope that an agreement could be reached with the government “to scale back or put a halt to this so that it is not applied.”

“The Spanish government now sees that the problem is very serious, but its proposal was to reduce the prior notice from four to two and a half hours. And not four, not two, not half an hour — none at all. The minister isn’t stupid, but I don’t know how we’ve got to this point,” he concluded.

The Balearic fishermen gathered on the fishing quay in Palma were supported by political figures, mainly from the People’s Party (PP) and Vox, such as the President of the Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne.

In a statement, Vox described the regulation as being “designed in Brussels offices by bureaucrats who have never set foot on a fishing boat in their lives,” and said it leaves the Balearic fishing sector in a situation of “extreme seriousness.”

“We are facing an absolute betrayal. The PP and the PSOE vote in Brussels in favour of suffocating our fishermen and then put on their Mallorcan jackets to come here and pose for photos. It’s a scam against people of the sea,” said Vox’s spokesperson in the regional parliament, Manuela Cañadas.

For the party, the obligation to notify arrival in port four hours in advance is “delusional” and comparable to requiring a taxi driver to give the same notice of arriving at a destination “that only takes 15 minutes.”

At the start of the protest, those present observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the railway accident in Adamuz (Córdoba), in which relatives of the president of the Andalusian federation of fishermen’s guilds lost their lives.