99% of the islands’ fishing boats remained moored today in their respective ports, according to the count made by Antoni Garau, secretary general of the Balearic Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds, who blamed this greater response by fishermen on the second day of the three-day national strike on “some little things” that the followers of the protest against the rise in diesel fuel told their colleagues who went out to fish on Monday.
Garau conditioned the end of the stoppages to the meeting that the sector will hold with the Minister of Fisheries, Luis Planas tomorrow, Wednesday. The general secretary warned that Balearic fishermen can accept a maximum price of 60/70 cents per liter of diesel to continue fishing with an economic return.
“France has decided to subsidize 0.35% per liter of fuel while Italy will do 0.25%. Planas’ proposals to the sector should be along this line”, said the general secretary of the Cofradias de Balears while on the contrary, did not think it likely that the central government would reduce VAT or exempt fishermen from Social Security contributions.
Garau was pleased that the European Commission can provide funds to the fishing sector in case external factors such as the rise in the price of diesel oil threatens the viability of its activity. In this sense, he welcomed the recent intervention of the Spanish Minister of Fisheries in Brussels highlighting that if the European Union could fix the catch quotas of the Member States, it could also provide aid in times of crisis.
Returning to the follow-up of today’s protest, the general secretary confirmed the statements of one of the fishmongers of the Mercat del Olivar that something was auctioned yesterday at the Palma fish market. “Yes, a boat has gone out to collect the nets that had been set in previous days and has landed eight boxes of catches. Once ashore, what should we do with that fish? Throw it away?”, justifying its sale.
Garau, who pointed out that he no longer serves as manager of the company OpmallorcaMar that markets the fish caught in Mallorca, which is currently chaired by Pedro Mercant, brother of the Director General of Fisheries of the Government, Joan Mercant, explained that the auctions of the catches of the previous day begin around four in the morning and, depending on the volume of the same, can be extended for three hours.
Notable absence of the usual species
Last Monday’s fishing inactivity meant that today none of the usual species at this time of year were to be found in the fishmongers’ shops. Thus, a visit to the few stalls that decided to open revealed that the jonquillo and cabotÃ’s absence was notable, only some fishmongers offered remains of the catches of the end of last week. There was also no shrimp, a species that requires going deeper into the sea with consequent higher fuel consumption. Nor purse seine fish, sardine and anchovy, in a particularly unproductive season. Also missing were the star species landed by the trammel net boats – groupers, caproigs, snapper…-, the popular shelf fish – gurnards, horse mackerel – and the always appreciated octopus and squid.
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