Despite the clumsy and misinformed reluctance of the Canarian Coalition, which has rushed to show its rejection, with the weak argument of the lack of transparency in its elaboration, the new Law of Sustainable Fishing and Fisheries Research has reached the Courts for its parliamentary processing, after several processes of public exposure and with the contributions of specialists and professionals of the sector. An effort of consensus that has not only been maintained during its drafting but will be extended, once approved, with the constitution of a Fisheries Advisory Forum in which the fisheries authorities, the representative agents of the sector and civil society will participate, and that will serve as a body of consultation and monitoring of the processes, to promote a participatory policy.
It has taken 20 years for that Law of Maritime Fisheries of the State of 2001 to be finally renewed and adapted to the new environmental, legal and economic reality, incorporating criteria of modernity, sustainability and rigor to the current regulations, in strict accordance with the new framework of international governance of the oceans. It is, in short, to certify that fishing and aquaculture must contribute to long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability, allowing the obtaining of economic, social and employment benefits and ensuring the availability of quality and safe food for the population.
The three axes on which this bill is based are therefore the conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources; the creation of employment in the sector, with the consequent generation of wealth and social cohesion of coastal areas; and finally, the strengthening of the links between science and political action in this matter. Whatever those who have made confrontation the basis of their political action say, the legislative project incorporates in its articles aspects that will result in the benefit of the Canarian fleet, as well as the rest of the country's fleets. Among them, the mechanisms for optimizing fishing possibilities, which will allow to redistribute, in the last quarter of the year, the surplus fishing possibilities to the fleets with greater dependence on the species in question. Thus, fishing possibilities will be reassigned to the fleets specialized in these fisheries, as happens in the islands with tuna.
Another novelty introduced by the law is that the fishing possibilities not used for a consecutive period of two years, except in cases of force majeure, return to the State for a new distribution among vessels that do use them. This guarantees the social and economic sustainability of the sector while promoting generational change and putting a stop to the so-called "sofa shipowners", avoiding speculation with a public good such as fisheries resources and fishing quotas. Regarding the regulation of recreational fishing, which is mentioned in the new legal framework due to its undoubted impact on the marine environment, it will be developed later in a specific regulation, due to its characteristics differentiated from extractive and professional activity.
The principle of sustainability is the mass that sustains the future Fisheries Law, from a triple environmental, social and economic perspective; and its end, necessary and unavoidable, according to the international agreement, is to guarantee the balance between the conservation of the marine environment and the development of a fishing activity that is profitable, attractive for business development and generational change, and that consolidates a modern and competitive sector.
Ariagona González is a national deputy for the province of Las Palmas and spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Fisheries Committee
