Four of Portugal’s largest sardine fishing organisations are contesting the latest government edict to restrict this year’s catches on the grounds of securing future supplies
Artesanalpesca, Barlapescas, Olhãopesca and Sesibal have complained at a government resolution that limits sardine catches to the south of Peniche on the west coast.
For these organisations, the new limits will bring immediate consequences to the fishing sector and to the consumer as shortages will raise prices of this most traditional Portuguese fish.
"In the short term the likely results of the government measure is the sacking of workers, the loss of hundreds of thousands of euros, and the loss of competitiveness in a sector that has shown positive results in previous years," reads a statement from the fishing organisations, calling the decision, "ill-founded and without reasonable justification."
The Olhão fishing industry is being hit twice as there also is a new ban on harvesting shellfish due to high levels of pollution in the Ria Formosa area.
As of yesterday, it now is prohibited to harvest shellfish in most production zones along the coast, around the Ria Formosa islands and on the nearby sandbanks.
This notice comes on top of a long lasting ban from eighteen months ago by the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA) which decommissioned extensive shellfish production areas, citing possible risks to public health. These areas remain closed.
Both the President of the IPMA and the Secretary of State for the Sea have appeared before a parliamentary commission to explain the ban and the pollution levels but the areas still form a ‘no go’ zone.
The toxic micro algae exist in small quantities in the natural environment but not in sufficient quantity to affect bivalves. Locals are in no doubt as to the cause of the latest water pollution results as 31 sewage outflows continue to discharge waste, as does the overloaded Water Treatment plant that poorly serves Faro and Olhão and discharges a toxic soup into the Ria.
Local shellfishermen now more than ever are convinced that the banning of large areas of production, the auctioning off of their hereditary shellfish beds and the poisoning of the water, alongside the forced evictions of many from their island homes, are part of a hidden agenda to rid the Algarve of artisan fishermen later to be replaced by larger businesses and tourist enterprises.
Whether this is fact or supposition, much of the famous Ria Formosa water officially now is producing potentially toxic shellfish which require a full five months in tanks before being sold.
Locals understand the wider ecological situation in the Ria Formosa and want a chance to be heard but this laudable desire continues to be avoided by the state that always appears to know better.
Official Save the Ria Formosa petition:
