The Secretary General of Fisheries, Isabel Artime, reiterated this Wednesday the request for the European Commission to reevaluate the regulation that bans fishing in deep waters in 87 areas of the Atlantic shelf, after a technical report was presented concluding that bottom longlining has a limited or practically non-existent impact on the seabed.
Artime intervened in Brussels at a public hearing of the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament, where the conclusions of the ISPAMER project, developed by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) at the request of the Organization of Fishing Producers of the Port of Burela, were presented.
The report studies the operation of the stone-ball longline, a bottom fishing gear, and its possible interaction with the seabed. According to the conclusions sent by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the results reduce the impact of this technique on marine ecosystem.
The Fisheries official emphasized that this evidence supports the appeal filed by Spain to annul the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614, adopted by the European Commission on September 15, 2022.
This regulation establishes the closure of fishing activity in 87 areas of the Atlantic shelf between 400 and 800 meters deep. In the opinion of the Spanish government, the restriction is excessive and particularly affects selective fishing gears such as bottom longlining.
Artime also stressed that in the preparation of the European regulation, the real effect of each type of fishing gear was not adequately analyzed, a situation that, as she warned, has caused "serious harm" to the Spanish fleet operating with bottom longlines.