Professional fishing in the ports of the Balearic Islands
Palma
18/08/2016
In all the ports there are dedicated areas for professional fishing. At present, in the ports that are managed by the Balearic Port Authority (APB) there are 16,500 square metres dedicated to fish auctions, the drying of fishing nets, storage and buildings of the Fishermen's Association and other services. The relationship of the APB with the Fishermen's Association is very close and they are usually represented at the Ports and Navigation Council.
According to data of 2014 from the Federation of Fishermen's Associations of the Balearic Islands, the ports have 171 commercial fishing vessels: 43 in Alcudia, 39 in Ibiza, 37 in Palma, 32 in Mahon and 20 in Savina. A very important part (129) are dedicated to small scale fishing technics and 19 to trawling (6 of these are in Palma). The rest of the vessels are dedicated to other minority modalities.
With respect to fish catches, the vessels of the five ports exceed 3,175 tons. The majority are fish with over 2,500 tons of which 350 are molluscs and 240 crustaceans.
The fish production figures show, however, that this activity has reduced its contribution to the Balearic economy. According to data from the Directorate General of Marine Affairs, fish production represents around 20 million euros, although between 2013 and 2014 the total quantity was reduced by 5.8%.
The future for the fishing industry will involve changes because the local Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries has presented a new "fishing tourism" decree with measures to diversify the industry. This opens new business possibilities for fishermen with prospects of improving income.
You can see the complete report in this video on YouTube.
