The Lanzarote Island Council and the shipowners want to promote the renewal of the conejera fishing fleet. To this end, the business owners and fishermen, accompanied by the head of the Island Council's Fisheries Area, have travelled to the Avilés shipyards in Asturias, where they are already considering the construction of at least a dozen new vessels.
Marcos Páez, Fisheries Councillor of the Lanzarote Island Council and chief patron of the La Graciosa Fishermen's Association, commented this morning on the Buenos Días Lanzarote programme of the island's leading radio station that, in view of European aid and the new Fisheries Law approved by the Government of the Canary Islands, many fishermen were keen to visit "the various ports of Avilés", following the "regulations on the restructuring and conversion of the entire fleet of the Canary Islands with European money". And so, the fishermen and shipowners are hoping to build boats of "up to 50 and 60 per cent in fibreglass, because this opportunity will never be presented again". The Fisheries Councillor hit the nail on the head there, because all over Spain people are waiting for what sooner or later will be inevitable, and that is the cutting of European funds. "And we have to take advantage of that opportunity, and as they wanted to choose to see those ports, I brought them from the Lanzarote Island Council so that they could be convinced of what was there".
It doesn't take long to build a fishing boat in Asturias. Páez estimated that "in a couple of months, if it is done in series" the works could be completed. "We are talking about boats of between twelve and sixteen metres", clarified the island's head of Fisheries.
A total of fourteen fishermen and shipowners travelled to the shipyards on the peninsula, and according to the councillor, "some have already placed an order".
Páez conveyed the joy with which the people of Lanzarote have faced the trip, especially taking into account the good progress of the fishing agreement with Morocco.
According to Marcos Páez, the shipowners will be able to benefit from the new calls for fishing aid from the Government of the Canary Islands, which will cover 50 per cent of the investment and 10 per cent of the amortisation of the loan. The State will also provide aid per tonnage to entrepreneurs who have been engaged in the activity for more than 5 years.