Fishermen in the Spanish Mediterranean have requested an urgent meeting with the government's fisheries secretariat. They are concerned about measures that could be approved at next month's meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council. They suspect that there will be a further reduction in the number of days they can fish. If this turns out to be the case, strike action is not being ruled out.
Domingo Bonnin, president of the federation of fishermen's brotherhoods in the Balearics, considers that the reduction would be "unjust". He says that since the multi-annual plan for western Mediterranean fisheries was activated, the number of fishing days has been cut by 20% over a two-year period. In addition, trawling has been subject to temporary stoppages.
Bonnin argues that the situation in the Balearics is not comparable with other Mediterranean fishing fleets. In the Balearics, there are 1,300 kilometres of coastline and a total of 33 professional boats. The Catalonian and Valencian coastline is roughly 1,400 kilometres long, but there are 440 boats. He insists that "Europe should take this into account".