The PP will bring to Congress this week a non-legislative proposal asking the Government to review the current limitations on bottom fishing linked to the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems, demanding that any restriction on fishing activity be based on the "best scientific evidence available."
The initiative, included in the agenda of the Agriculture Commission on Wednesday, September 23, recalls that the European Commission agreed to close 87 areas of the northeastern Atlantic to bottom fishing in order to safeguard vulnerable marine ecosystems.
However, the PP criticizes that the application of this decision has incorporated different fishing gear under the same limitation, with very different behaviors and impacts on the seabed, without adequately differentiating between those that maintain continuous contact with the bottom and those whose interaction is "very limited."
Concern about the impact on bottom longline fishing
The party emphasizes that it generates "special concern" that bottom longline fishing has been included in these restrictions, as it claims that the available scientific evidence and the experience of the sector itself "show that its interaction with benthic habitats is very reduced" and that, in many cases, this modality can be carried out in semi-pelagic conditions, "without permanent contact with the seabed."
The proposal warns that the limitations currently in force have caused significant economic harm to numerous vessels and to coastal communities whose economy largely depends on this fishing activity.
Consequently, the formation led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo urges the Executive to "promote before the institutions of the European Union the revision of the current model of protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems, ensuring that "any restriction on fishing activity is based on the best scientific evidence available."
Likewise, the 'popular' demand that the Government, in coordination with the fishing sector, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the autonomous communities, and the competent scientific bodies, develop a technical proposal to review the classification of bottom longline fishing, so that its operational particularities and its limited interaction with the seabed are recognized.
Finally, the PP asks that Spain assume a leadership role in the Council of the European Union to promote an initiative that ensures that the community regulations on marine conservation differentiate fishing methods based on their actual interaction with the marine environment and not just by their traditional name or classification.