One of the oldest economic activities in the world, fishing, begins to notice those hundreds or thousands of years of activity. From the sector they recognize the problem, but they also point out that the world of the sea has an undeserved bad press, since news is only heard when it is negative and the positive is hidden. “The sector is known, but in a distorted way,” he sums up in conversation with EL MUNDO Basilio Otero, president of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds (FNCP). Thus, he admits that they themselves may be one of the main causes of the generational change problem: “We have been too closed and we have only let the news that is not good get out.” And, at the same time, they have not been able to “teach society what the true life of a sailor is.”
To begin with, Otero points out that not all are the large fishing boats that can come to mind when thinking about fishing. Of the nearly 8,700 ships in Spain, only between 200 and 500 are high. “With which, we are talking about ships that come to land every day, they are not at sea,” illustrates the shipowner. In any case, he also points out that even those who spend weeks or months at work have changed a lot and alludes to the recent presentation of a satellite social media communication system that allows seafarers to use WhatsApp or make video calls from virtually anywhere in the world. . “We still have the communications room in which there was a row of seats where people went to give or receive news to their loved ones at sea,” he recalls.
“Where do we have problems It is with the graduates, whether they are bosses or machine heads“, he details. “We have not been able to count the benefits of these degrees.” He considers that it has been ignored that it is a sector in which salaries are relatively high in these cases. “In most cases they give to make contracts of relief”, explains Otero. That is to say, to spend six months at sea and another six of rest. They are charged, he assures, “very important salaries, of more than 50,000 euros”.
While, in any case, part of the fleet – the one that works more than 200 miles from Spain – is nourished by foreign workers, since it can hire people from countries with which there are no agreements. “They are the hardest-working and calmest people we have brought,” boasts Otero, who also asks to extrapolate the measure to the coast and inshore.
Beyond the problems, this fishing professional also points out that there are solutions. Two, specifically, at least to start with: “Legal security and changing the training planRegarding the first, he believes that there will be changes in the way in which stocks and quotas are decided -they ask that they be done in a longer term, two or three years, instead of annually- during the Spanish presidency of the European Commission “The understanding of the administrations is fundamental, because many times we feel heard, but not listened to and that is a problem,” he laments.
For their part, the studies changed after the suppression of an old plan for adults – non-regulated training – “which trained all the people who are retiring now and have been excellent sailors in all the seas of the world.” “Now any degree except multipurpose coastal skipper is an academic career and that does not attract the attention of people, especially graduates“, he explains. They tried to create a two-year dual professional training, but the result was not positive and only four of 30 students ended up at sea. “Not everything old is bad when it has worked, especially when you change and see that It doesn’t work”, he adds. Between careers and higher cycles, which require ESO, doors are closed to young people or to current staff who want to continue their training in the sector.
youth and sea
However, Otero assumes that before “there were more young people.” He gives himself as an example: he is the son and grandson of sailors, but from a home with four siblings and only three of them dedicated themselves to the sea and now there are two left in the sector. “The real problem is the replacement of businessmen“, highlights.
Carmen Soto, 35-year-old patron saint of Tenerife, aspires to be one of those relays. also Manuela Leal, 41-year-old conilea and a family of fishermen that goes back several generations. However, of the current one, only she is in the sea: “Behind me no one comes“.
Soto, at the moment, is the patron of a multi-purpose ship and manager of the company, but the shipowner “not yet”. Also, although she has been in the world of fishing for 12 years, she does not come from a family that has been dedicated to it.
It started out of love, to which his partner was for years, and, when the relationship ended, he continued out of love, but to the sea. “I got out of the sanitary issue and got into fishing and people were freaking out,” she recalls. Later, yes, he received support that continues today. In the case of Leal, it was “since I was little, from the first times I went fishing with my father.” “I’ve done modules and things, but the sea has always called me and everything I’ve studied has been related to it,” she describes.
For Soto, the best of the sea is also what complicates the relay: nature. “The good thing about this job is that either you like it or you don’t like it; it’s not 50% and if you like it, you stay,” he explains. His colleague from Conil agrees: “You see the sunrises, the sunsets… they are things that you have to embark on to get to know them“.
The downside are the times when the weather or the quotas do not allow you to go fishing, but also to be able to do it and return with empty nets or with a fish that has a different value than expected weeks before. “We go out and when we go in we sell a few kilos, but we don’t know the price at which it comes out and maybe You’ve worked 20 days from sunrise to sunset and when you arrive they sell it to you for two duros“.
That time also makes conciliation difficult, which is “practically impossible.” “I got off and I’m working from the ground; I have a six-month-old baby and going away for 20 days and leaving him on the ground is not part of my plans,” explains Soto. In the artisanal fishing of Leal this does not affect so much, but it does affect the periods stopped due to bad weather –of average estn 120 das al ao parados– and the need to prepare for them. “It is not a stable job in which you know that every month you are going to receive an amount,” she describes. “In the months that you earn a lot, you cannot spend all the money because then the bad months come and you are going to need it.”
“The generational change, as things are here in the Canary Islands, is very screwed up and look, we need professionals, because there are hardly any sailors and skippers,” he points out. Fixed expenses squeeze -“the boat in which I am, still, is almost 5,000 euros a month“- and believes that “if you can get a job on land, from Monday to Friday, with your payroll in which you earn less, but have more peace of mind, you are going to stay on land”.
Otero appreciates that passion of the few who rejuvenate the fleet: “Obviously, the people who arrive are people with a lot of enthusiasm, people who have sucked on the sea since they were little.” But he admits that “they are the least” and, as he sees in his port, “there are very few young people who take over from their parents, almost all of them have studied and have dedicated themselves to other things.” When these generations retire – “they have seven or eight years left at the most” – they will leave the ship. “And once a ship is left, a relay no longer appears“.
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