The Parliament of Galicia gave the green light this Tuesday to a petition addressed to the central government so that the Japanese clam is recognized as a species of natural production in the Galician estuaries.
"It will not only legally protect the activity of a traditional sector for Galicia, but it will also guarantee the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of our coastline for the coming decades," said popular deputy Nazareth Cendán before the Parliament's fishing commission.
As the PP parliamentarian has underlined, demanding its legal recognition as a species that is annually produced in Galicia is "an act of scientific coherence, economic justice, and regulatory realism given a presence consolidated for almost half a century."
According to details provided, in numerous confraternities in the community, the Japanese clam accounts for between 60% and 80% of the total bivalve catches and the income received by shellfish gatherers.
More in-depth, she indicated that the Japanese clam constitutes a surviving, self-sufficient, and stable population, which "does not act as an invasive species, but rather as another element of the biodiversity of the estuaries."
"To claim that this resource does not reproduce naturally in the Galician estuaries would mean that the central government ignores scientific evidence and the productive reality of the sector," she stated.
In this context, she criticized the current legal ambiguity regarding its consideration and that the central Executive maintains an administrative criterion that generates "legal uncertainty, introduces additional administrative burdens that hinder planning, restocking, and efficient management of the beds, and limits access to certain lines of the FEMPA."
A cut considered unfair for the Galician fleet
"The government of Pedro Sánchez is once again punishing Galicia, our fishermen, and the main fishing power in Europe," lamented popular deputy Paula Mouzo, denouncing the 7% cut in the sardine quota for 2026; when, as she explained, the Galician fleet "exhausts its quota in record time because there is demand, market, and productive capacity," unlike other areas, such as Andalusia, where there are tons left over that they "do not even use."
"Galician boats are forced to buy quota, paying between 90 cents and one euro per kilogram of sardine," she emphasized.
The proposal of the Popular Group was approved unanimously and it urges the central Executive to review the distribution of sardines, increasing the quota assigned to the Northwest Cantabrian region based on effective use and the fleet's capture capacity.
Likewise, they demand an end to the current market for buying and selling quotas and the establishment of a "public, free, and transparent" mechanism to distribute unused surpluses. "Galicia cannot continue paying the consequences of an absent ministry and a fishing policy made with its back to reality," defended the popular deputy.
Finally, she described as "unacceptable" that Portugal has 66.5% of the sardine catch quota compared to Spain's 33.5%, "when we double the number of boats with 260 purse seiners" compared to the 130 in the neighboring country. Therefore, Mouzo has requested that this factor also be taken into account when setting the distribution, "in addition to valuing who exhausts the quota and who negotiates with it because they have a surplus."