The Secretary General of Fisheries, Isabel Artime, has today reached an agreement with the Northwest Cantabrian Rim sector on the management of anchovy fisheries in 2025, which began yesterday.
The meeting addressed the proposal presented by the association of producer organizations Opescantábrico, which brings together 90% of the production, and which consisted in the distribution of a limit of 96% of the catches among their associative entities, so that each of them could regulate the rhythm of the fishery and the volume of landings, in order to optimize the use of the available quota.
Finally, the consensus of the sector has been reached to agree on this management model and to extend the catch limit from 4% to 10% for those operators who are not linked to these associative entities and who were not in the initial agreement. Thus, a 90% catch limit has been assigned to the representative entities of Opescantabrico.
This distribution of catch limits will not lead to the consolidation of rights for a possible future distribution of the anchovy quota.
This measure is intended to alleviate the massive discharges of small and low-priced anchovy specimens detected in the first campaign days of previous years, and thereby improve the profitability of all vessels participating in the fishery.
The new management model will be enshrined in the corresponding ministerial order and will take into account that, once the campaign has been started, the catches made until the publication of the future rule will be computed according to the limits established therein. The anchovy fishery in the north-west Bay of Biscay started yesterday.
This measure is intended to alleviate the massive discharges of small and low-priced anchovy specimens detected in the first campaign days of previous years, and thereby improve the profitability of all vessels participating in the fishery.
Isabel Artime valued the meeting, as it has managed to reach consensus among all stakeholders and the measures agreed will contribute to the maintenance of the good state of conservation of the resource, as well as the socioeconomic viability of companies and operators.
The current anchovy campaign for the Cantabrian and Northwest Rim fleet began yesterday, March 10, with a quota of more than 28,600 tons. This quota is the result of the allocation of the Total Allowable Catch that corresponds to Spain, together with the surpluses of the previous campaign (year-on-year flexibility) and exchanges with France. For years, agreements have been concluded between the Spanish and French fishing sectors, which are subsequently ratified by the national administrations (Guetaria Agreement).
The Cantabrian and Northwest waiters can diversify their mackerel and horse mackerel fisheries with that of Iberian anchovy and sardine, which will also be opened in the coming days.