Allegations to the Draft Ministerial Order establishing a Management Plan in the Mediterranean (Oceana)

PRESS RELEASE | The new Ministerial Order to regulate trawling in the Mediterranean does not comply with European regulations

EUROPEAN UNION
Thursday, May 28, 2020, 02:50 (GMT + 9)

The new text condemns hake, since it allows the exploitation of "pezqueñines" to continue and includes closures that already existed in other regulations

Oceana will ask the European Commission to reject the Order and apply the legal minimums of the Multiannual Plan according to the available scientific information

The APA / 423/2020 Order, published in the BOE on May 20, is the central axis of the application in Spain of the Multi-annual Plan for the Western Mediterranean that came into force in 2019. The text establishes the fishing effort in the Spanish Mediterranean in the coming years and adopts closures to trawling to avoid the great problem of catching juveniles. Its purpose is to end overfishing, in line with the Community Fisheries Policy, and, in particular, to curb the high levels of overexploitation of hake, which is fished up to 15 times above sustainable levels in certain areas. One year after the Plan was adopted, Spain still does not apply any solvent or responsible measure to alleviate the Mare Nostrum crisis.

Closed areas (in red) to prevent catches of juvenile hake included in the new Order APA / 423/2020 (Figure 1)

The Multiannual Plan envisaged as the main measure, the adoption of a three-month closure to the drag in the coastal strip. However, Spain has chosen to repeal it and choose an option that does not even meet the minimum legal requirements in Europe and would hardly represent a slight improvement, given the current alarming situation of fishing grounds.

Taking into account the published text, Oceana considers that Minister Luis Planas has succumbed to pressure from the fishing sector, since in the new Order the closure areas initially planned to comply with the Plan that regulates the trawling in the western Mediterranean. The text ignores the scientific advice and also does not reflect proposals that the ministry initially considered. It is also striking that the largest area of ​​the closures is in French waters, while the Alboran Sea and the Levante fishing grounds will continue to be exposed to overfishing.

Closing areas in the Balearic Islands and fishing effort (figure 2)

“Spain opted for the repeal of the coastal closure of the European Regulation, but unfortunately the Order does not offer a credible alternative. This policy does not imply any progress and clearly responds to the short-term interest of a sector with no future in view ”affirms Vera Coelho, Director of Campaigns for Oceana, adding:“ This order does not meet the minimum legal requirements of Europe and is not the way to address us. towards an ecological transition model that integrates sustainable fishing. ”

As for closings to prevent the exploitation of juveniles (see Figure 1), the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries of the European Union has already warned that Spain did not comply with European regulations. However, the measures included still do not respond to the needs of the most overexploited resources in the Mediterranean for the following reasons:

• The closures included around the Alboran Island, the Gulf of Leon and the area to the northeast of Mallorca do not represent any improvement, since trawling is prohibited by previously existing regulations.
• There are no closure zones either on the Andalusian coast (GSA 1) or on the Levante (GSA 6) - for which there is sufficient information on the aggregations of juveniles-, which does not meet the minimum requirements of the European Regulation.
• The closings in the Balearic area are located in areas where fishing effort is minimal and do not coincide with areas of concentration of hake juveniles (see Figure 2).
• During the order's consultation period, Oceana already warned of the risk of the proposals and sent different alternatives based on scientific documents produced by Spanish institutions to contribute to the protection needs of juveniles.

In view of the deficiencies of the Order, and taking into account that it does not comply with the obligations established under the European regulatory framework, Oceana will ask the European Commission to reject the Order and apply the legal minimums of the Multi-year Plan according to scientific information. available.

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