A fisherman’s lot is not a happy one. It hasn’t been particularly happy in Puerto Pollensa just recently because of the ‘botellón’ drinking parties and vandalism of boats; the regional government’s ports authority is installing cameras in order to improve security.
More seriously in terms of business, there are European regulations and “strong restrictions”. On Friday, the fishermen staged a protest. They remained in port all day. There was no fishing, and in fact more or less all fishermen in Mallorca gave up a day’s work to protest against EU “restrictions on hours, days of work, catches and other demands”.
The president of the fishermen’s federation of brotherhoods, Domingo Bonnín, appeared before the Balearic parliament’s economy committee on Thursday. He was seeking support for an industry being condemned to “gradually disappear” under the weight of EU requirements in a plan which could see Mallorca’s fishermen lose up to 40% of current turnover over the next five years.