Balearic Fishing field rejects the 2026 established red shrimp catch limit

A letter to the general director of Sustainable Fishing, Ramón de la Figuera, has been redirected. The content of the letter asks him to express this discomfort before the European Commission.

Agriculture, Fishing and Natural Environment Counselling, through Directorate General of Fishing, the Balearic Federation of Fishmongers Confraternity and the Organization of Fishing Products, OPMallorcaMar, has transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Alimentation their discontent with the limit of catch (TAC) established for the red shrimp (Aristeus antennatus) for the 2026 year. They have redirected a letter to the general director of Sustainable Fishing, Ramón de la Figuera, in which they ask him to express this discomfort before the European Commission and also to individually manage the fishing grounds of the Balearics (GSA5). In addition, they require the TAC to be taken down due to considering it unnecessary. According to the explanation of the general director of Fishing, Antoni M. Grau: “the simultaneous and uncoordinated limitation of fishing days and kilos of red shrimp force the fishmongers to fish closer to the coast and capture much less fish than what they can commercialize". In this sense, Grau has pointed out that “the quota of the shrimp that keeps the European Commision is unnecessary and contradictory with other management measures that already apply, such as the minimum size and the regulation of fishing days”.

According to the general director, the scientific reports elaborated by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) and presented to the Scientific Committee of the General Commission of Mediterranean Fishing (GFCM), in December  of 2024, conclude that the red shrimp fishery in the Balearic Islands was already exploited in a sustainable way in the year 2023, with projections that show a significant improvement of the state of the resource in the next years if the current levels of exploitation are kept.

The Counselling and the field point out that the current situation is even more favorable, since during 2024 and 2025 drastic reductions have been applied in the number of fishing days and, in 2025, other measures such as the minimum size for the shrimp and the increase of the minimum size for deep-sea fishing have been applied. With these measures, Grau affirms: “the mortality by fishing must be, necessarily, in the GSA5, significantly inferior to the one of 2023, even more taking into account that there has not been ships movement from other regions”. Therefore, the general director has manifested that “it is unacceptable for the evaluations to be carried out publicly with two years of delay, when the exploited populations develop very rapidly”. 

On the other hand, the report of the GFCM also affirms that other present species in the GSA5, such as the white shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris), the langoustine (Nephrops norvegicus), the red mullet (Mullus surmuletus), the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and even the ray (Raja clavata), are also found in a sustainable fishing state. In this sense, Grau has explained that “the general positive diagnosis of the state of the fishing resources in the Balearics reinforces the need of implementing a management of the Mediterranean based on differentiated geographical units (GSAs). That’s why we ask the General Secretary of Fishing to, at least, manage the fishing grounds of the Balearics with a regionalized fishing plan”.

They have also reminded that “the GSA5 already has a specific partial management plan, through the order that regulates access of boats from Alicante to the fishing grounds of the Pitiusas”. and has added that “it is not only an unusual or exceptional proposal, but a coherent evolution inside the current normative benchmark”. No matter the regulating environment of the European Commission and the competency limitations of the State on the matter, encouraging fishing comanagement plans by geographic zones, particularly in insular zones such as the Balearics, would allow a more efficient, realistic and sustainable management of the fishing resources, aligned with a better available scientific evidence and with the social-economical reality of every area.

Finally, the Government and fishmongers have the intention of elaborating, with all the implied fields and for the next months, a proposal of comanagement plan of trawl fishing in the GSA5, that shows that the activity is economically viable and environmentally sustainable in the Mediterranean, and particularly in the Balearic Islands. Once the proposal is elaborated, it will be remitted to the General Secretary of Fishing, which is invited to participate during its creation process.