A new fisheries organization incorporated in Spain last month is pledging to support small and low-impact fisheries in the European Union.
LIFE (Low Impact Fishers of Europe) created in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia), aims to represent, support, develop and defend low impact fishing operations in coastal waters. The initial membership includes fishing organizations from eight European countries: Croatia, Greece, France, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Poland and Germany.
More than 20 organizations of fishers from eight different countries representing the union of more than 1,000 industry professionals signed the declaration documents incorporating LIFE.
The signing of this document took place in the framework of the II European Congress on Low Impact Fisheries in Santiago de Compostela. The congress discussed allocation of quotas, marketing, fishing rights, lack of generational replacement, indifference to the governments and environmental impact as some of the common problems of the small-scale fishing sector in Europe.
"It is like a historic milestone for small-scale fisheries," Luis Rodríguez, president of Asoar-Armega, one of the founding associations, told SeafoodSource. "it's an essential support for this segment of the fleet in order to defend the common interests against policies that may be unwanted."
This platform is open to other organizations that fulfill the requirements and want to join LIFE, Rodríguez said. Right now, the organization is involved in the presentation of its platform to the European Commission and each Member State. From there, "we will start to work with all kinds of demands and suggestions of the sector," Rodríguez said.
According to Luis Rodríguez, the small-scale fishing sector represents nearly 82 percent of the total Spanish fleet.
