The bigeye tuna quota limit was reached yesterday, forcing more than two dozen vessels and more than 400 fishermen to stay ashore. Shipowners are apprehensive and say that three months of harvest are not enough to keep companies running.
The bigeye tuna quota limit has already been reached, with the information having been communicated to Portuguese shipowners, including those from Madeira, yesterday. In a letter from the Directorate-General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services (DRGM), the fishermen were informed that the capture of this species of tuna was no longer allowed from 00:00 today, with the vessels unloading the fish already caught until 11:59 pm tomorrow, July 13th.
This situation, which was already predictable, left Madeiran shipowners and fishermen in a difficult situation. This is exactly what the DIÁRIO, Jacinto Silva explains.
The president of Coopescamadeira – Fisheries Cooperative of the Archipelago of Madeira, although he assumes that the shipowners were not caught off guard, because they already knew that this limit was close, he does not fail to show apprehension about the future and survival of the companies.
The situation becomes more complicated because, this year, very few albacore tuna were caught, since the passage of this species through the seas of the Region suffered a break.
Skipjack fishing, which made it possible to offset expenses, is now more limited, due to the increase in the nature reserve in the Selvagens Islands, and the capture is now prohibited within the 12 nautical miles of that archipelago.
And to make the problem even worse, we have the price of fuel, a situation that makes going out to sea unsustainable.