Officials with the Spanish government and fisheries sector have declared the recovery of the Atlantic tuna stock, a fishery worked by different fishing gears in Spain. This fishery has been implementing a recovery plan since 2007. The officials are using the available quota of Atlantic tuna for this season running out in record time as proof.
According to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Canary fleet has exhausted the national quota in a day and a half, and the purse seine fleet in less than 24 hours.
The situation of the “almadraba,” an artisanal fishing gear, is no different. Ana Santos, biologist of the Almadrabas’ Fishermen Producer Association, estimated that in a short time they too will exhaust their quota. According to Santos, there is a reduction of the season compared to previous seasons that can be a consequence of the recovery of the Atlantic tuna: “Some gears are going to finish the quota in three weeks, others in a month, while before it used to finish in two months and even more.”
Fishermen have been making an effort, with the Atlantic tuna recovery plan, for seven years, and as a consequence of the results of this season, they request an increase in the available quota for the following years. The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture agrees with the “spectacular recovery.”
“The season of 2014 shows information that confirms this trend, which must help to remove all the uncertainties invoked by the scientists and by the European commission in the International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)’s past meeting in November 2013, to not increase the quota," according to a press release from the ministry.
On the other hand, the sector will request an increase of quota to ICCAT. "In view of the results, (it) only remains that the managers be coherent and recognize this recovery, adapting the quotas for the next campaigns to the availability of the resource, since as it has been demonstrated by the information of this campaign, it is spectacular," according to Spanish Fishermen Confederation (Cepesca).
Ana Santos expects that there will be a gradual increasing of the available quota and that for the next campaign it will be decided to increase it by a 5 percent, since according to the scientists it is what might be raised and in this way to follow the path of recovery and the aims marked in the plan. "This 5 percent, recommended by scientists is what we want. We have to be prudent. We have lived an exaggerated overexploitation and we do not want to return to that situation. So, we want that the control measures be kept on and only (that) they raise a bit of the quota. What the scientists say, the ones who study and evaluate it, is what we want.”
