Tag Archive for: quota

Portuguese fishing communities swallowed by giant Dutch family company

The North Atlantic waters are valuable for their cod, redfish, and halibut species. With fish prices increasing, the fish right is big business. National governments and the EU no longer control fishing rights but a few giant fish companies do, like the Dutch Parlevliet & Van Der Plas, one of Europe’s most powerful fishing conglomerates with at least 50 vessels sailing under 10 flags.

In 2015, the family company expanded its business in Portugal by acquiring fishing rights in lucrative international waters between Greenland and Canada, according to Follow the Money, an international platform for investigative journalism.

The rampant expansion of Parlevliet & Van Der Plas is possible thanks to the EU’s fisheries policy that allows for quotas to be transferred between companies and ships, whereby the access is privatized and goes to the highest bidder.

The Portuguese deal in 2015, however, was a special one. By buying three rusty cod trawlers from the Portuguese company Verdemar – that collected fishing boats from family-owned businesses in Aveiro, a coastal town some 250 km north of Lisbonthe company got wider access to the lucrative Norwegian and Atlantic international waters.

Their big ships engage in an intense hunt for overfished species in the North Atlantic, contributing to the decline of fish stock in the area. Dragging the nets near the ocean’s bottom not only needs more fossil fuel but also has broader environmental implications like bycatch and destruction of marine habitats. The enormous size of the company makes it nearly impossible for Portuguese fishermen to compete.

In most EU countries – including Portugal – fishing rights are linked to a ship, so once a company buys the vessel it obtains its fishing rights. Big companies like Parlevliet & Van Der Plas – whose revenue almost doubled from 800 million in 2016 to 1.5 billion euros in 2021 – are not so much interested in the vessel itself but more in the right to fish a particular species in a particular area. They need quota, and cod quota is precious.

Catching cod in large-scale fishing also has wide-reaching social consequences. In Portugal, bacalhau (cod) is the country’s national dish and each Portuguese citizen eats – on average – around 15 kg of cod per year, especially during the Christmas season. But owing to overfishing and rising ocean temperatures the fish has become increasingly scarce and expensive.

The cod industry in Portugal was already struggling at the end of the 1960s after cod stocks declined in Newfoundland and dictator Salazar’s protective fishing laws were changed. Even so, the country was able to negotiate cod quotas in the Northern Atlantic until 1986 when the country joined the EU and conceded control of fisheries to Brussels.
Today, only 4% of the cod is caught by Portuguese vessels. The rest is imported.

Boa semana               Enjoy the week          (pic Público/Sapo)


















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kan allemaal, maar leven zonder sardientjes  ‘Nem pensar’ (geen denken aan)!

‘Het is volkomen absurd, dat de internationale adviesraad ICES de Europese Commissie afgelopen week geadviseerd heeft, dat Portugal minstens 15 jaar moet stoppen met het vissen op sardines’, zegt de president van het Nationale Instituut voor Visserij, professor Carlos Sousa Reis.

Dat zal niet alleen een hele generatie vissers werkeloos maken maar ook de Portugese cultuur en eetgewoonten ingrijpend veranderen. Vis en Feest ‘De levenscyclus van een sardine is 5-6 jaar. Als we de vangst 15 jaar bevriezen praten we dus over 3 cycli. Is het probleem dan opgelost? Waarom geen 150 jaar stoppen?
Dan heeft het meer zin om de Portugezen te verbieden sardines te eten!’

Volgens Jose Apolinário – de staatssecretaris van Visserij – is de dramatische terugloop van de sardines in de Atlantische oceaan niet het gevolg van overbevissing maar van klimaatverandering.

PONG-Pesca, een platform van NGO’s betrokken bij de visserij, vindt dat het land beter naar alternatieven – zoals de vangst op makreel – kan zoeken, dan zich te blijven vastbijten in ‘quota’.

Verleden jaar werd door de Portugese vissersvloot – volgens gegevens van het Nationaal Bureau voor de Statistiek – bijna 200.000 ton vis uit zee gehaald, waarvan 14.000 ton sardines.
Desondanks moet het land voor zijn consumptie sardines importeren.

Winst wordt er alleen gemaakt op sardientjes in blik, waarvan de productie verleden jaar een recordhoogte bereikte en de schatlist bijna 60 miljoen euro opleverde.

Quem me ensinou a nadar                   Wie leerde me zwemmen
Quem me ensinou a nadar                   Wie leerde me zwemmen
Foi, foi marinheiro                                Dat waren, dat waren, matroos
Foi os peixinhos do mar                       Dat waren de visjes in de zee

Milton Nascimento, Peixinhos Do Mar.    https://youtu.be/98BFoZ8t0lk

Bom fim de semana !