Portuguese and Spanish fleets are capturing too many sardines and the recommendation to the European Commission is to ban its fishing for at least fifteen years to allow stocks to rise.
This drastic suggestion comes from the Commission's advisory body on fishing quotas and was slammed by Portugal’s Secretary of State for Fishing, José Apolinário, who claimed the 'Evaluation of the management plan for Iberian sardine' report used old data.
The sardine population in the Iberian Sea has reached low levels and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) considers that it would take at least 15 years of total suspension of fishing to restore sardine stocks to what it calls, ‘acceptable levels.’
The opinion that has been delivered to the Commission, warns that the current quotas issued to the Iberian neighbours does not include preventive measure to limit fishing and allow stocks to rise.
Although the position of ICES is not binding, it is taken into account by Brussels when setting limits on the annual sardine catch.
The ICES opinion in 2015, which caused a storm, was for the 2016 sardine catch to be below 1,584 tonnes. Portugal and Spain negotiated with Brussels andended up+ being allowed to land 17,000 tonnes.
The international experts now say that it is highly probable (95%+) that "it would take 15 years without fishing" to rebuild the catchable sardine stock of fish over one year old off the Iberian coast.
For ICES, the current management plan for sardine fishing that has been agreed between Portugal and Spain, fails to protect stocks in the short or longer terms and it was an analysis of this plan that prompted the ICES review and uncomfortable report.
The Secretary of State for Fisheries, José Apolinário, rubbished ICES's opinion, especially since its researchers did not have up-to-date information on the sardine population in centre and the north of the country when gathering data.
Apolinário blames declining stocks on climate change as the catches have remained broadly the same over past years with Portugal complying with ICES criteria to maintain healthy stocks.
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To read the report in .pdf, click on '2016 Evaluation of the management plan for Iberian sardine' - and follow the link under 'Special Requests'
