Contrary to reports last Friday – suggesting new restrictions on sardine capture – Portugal’s Minister for the Sea Ana Paula Vitorino has announced that quotas that leave fishing communities exasperated are due to be increased, as soon as next month.
Talking at an event in the seaside city of Póvoa de Varzim – the economy of which has been shaped by fishing – Vitorino said ‘recovery measures’ have been successful, so that “we can incrementally increase the quota” settled earlier this year.
“We can do it now, at the beginning of next month”, she said – though negotiations on how the increase is to be managed are still ongoing, with the secretary of state in talks with his counterpart in Spain.
This is a hot topic among fishing communities which all argue that quotas set by Brussels are based – and always have been – on faulty data.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
