The fishermen of Tarifa last week finally received the reply from the Marine Secretary General about the distribution of additional quota for the fishery of bluefin tuna. However, the response was not satisfactory.
The head of Tarifa’s Fishermen Association, Manuel Peinado, met with the Tarifa boatowners to convey the new distribution measures of additional bluefin tuna tonnage.
The Spanish Secretariat decided that the 3% market share, that represents 160 M/T –and which is reserved by the Marine Secretary General- will be split between three fleets: the Cantabrian, the
According to Peinado, the Straits will only receive an additional eight tons, to be shared with the fleet of
The Cantabrian fleet will take 25 tons and the Mediterranean 16. “Even when
The Tarifa Fishermen Association, together with the affected boatowners, has taken action by sending a letter in which they reject these measures and call for a new “emergency meetingâ€. According to Peinado, the Directorate General of Fisheries had agreed to find a solution to the lack of tuna fishery resources for the Tarifa fleet, on September 12th.
In the meantime, the season is coming to an end. Peinado complained that “other fleets still have sufficient share†while in the port of Tarifa 11 boats have already had to stop fishing. And 4 others have almost exhausted their quota, as per the original distribution.
Tuna fishing was the activity which Tarifa was hoping would restore their economy. The vessels were “re-adapted†so that they could fish tuna, which seemed to be the species with more chances for the recovery of the local fishing activities.
This current situation is now directly harming about 80 families.