The Río Mau was conceived as a stern trawler, 29 meters long, and built at the now-defunct Construcciones Navales Santodomingo. With Vigo registration and built in 1994, this historic Gran Sol fishing vessel has already lost its Spanish flag. Sold to a Huelva company, it was reformed to dedicate itself to shellfish fishing in Moroccan waters. It is the same country that has imported Galaxia Dos, also from Vigo, and Septimo, from Ribeira, as it appears in the daily fleet register of the European Commission. Three examples of exodus, of loss of extractive capacity for Galicia, of a sector that has just lived its worst Christmas campaign since there are historical records. The fleet reduction and, above all, the snip from Brussels to the activity of bottom fishing gear, have turned the auctions of the days before Christmas Eve into a morass. The markets registered a devastating balance: both the turnover and the volumes marketed in the first sale fell by half between December 15 and 26, according to the figures reported to the Pesca de Galicia portal, dependent on the Consellería do Mar.
This drop is not only year-on-year –compared to the same period in 2021–, but with the average activity of the fleet for the same days of the last ten years. In other words: if the fishing auctioned an average of 40,000 tons in the week prior to Christmas Eve and Christmas -with variations, but never below 30,500 tons-, this time it has remained far from 20,000. This figure includes all the relevant markets in the community, except for smaller deposits –for this analysis– such as Corme, Espasante, Foz, O Vicedo, Panxón and Porto do Son. With the setback in prices as an addition: neither the end of the restrictions due to the pandemic nor the escalation of inflation raised prices above 14 euros on average among all the places, when last year they had reached 16 euros the kilo on average. With diesel, moreover, at all-time highs –above the profitability threshold, even with the help of the Government– and in the face of a year in which horse mackerel cannot be a target species.
13.4 euros on average per kilo. This is what the Galician markets marked in the days leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas. A very low value compared to the averages of previous years, and far from assuming the current escalation of inflation
The information provided by Pesca de Galicia makes it possible to carry out this same exercise of comparison with the income from the auctions. In the last ten years, and also between December 15 and 26, the markets billed an average of 21 million euros. With very remarkable campaigns in between, such as that of 2017 (26 million in sales) or 2016 (23 million). But, on this occasion, the sum of sales of all the deposits was light years away. They were €11.6 million; never before had the fleet peeked into the grapes of New Years Eve with such a bare balance. And that, to a large extent, is not surprising. The first weeks of application of the community regulation for the protection of the so-called vulnerable marine ecosystems (vulnerable marine ecosystems, VMS), as recounted by Faro de Vigo, from the Prensa Ibérica group, the sector was already accusing the impact of the veto against bottom fishing.
The regulation, in force since October 9, was adopted without having made a socioeconomic impact report, as recognized by the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) document. However, the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs, Virginijus Sinkevicius, has refused to reconsider the measure and has called on shipowners to even engage in other activities such as fishing tourism. “States can support their fleets with measures such as the diversification of activities”, Said the Lithuanian in writing, as revealed by this newspaper. Scientists from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) have anticipated that the ban on bottom fishing will increase in the future in community waters -this regulation will be renewed year after year-, and Brussels also has an action plan on the table with which it intends to reserve 30% of the areas as free of extractive activity.
It is a scenario from which medium-sized or inshore shipowners flee. In addition to the cases of the Mau River, Galaxy Two and Seventh, also during this year 2022, six other medium-sized troops were exported to Oman, France, Mauritania and Namibia, in addition to the Moroccan fishing ground. Gaztelugaitz, Nuevo Laredo, Mar Mares, Manuel Mascato and Do Xilo completed this list of lost fishing boats.