MADRID, 18 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Congress of Deputies will deliberate this week on the Sustainable Fishing and Fisheries Research Law, which among its objectives aims to strengthen the conservation and sustainable use of fishing resources, betting on a more efficient and flexible use of fishing quotas.
The text, approved by the Council of Ministers last May, already passed its presentation phase last week and will now continue its processing in the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Commission on Monday and already in the plenary session of Congress on Thursday, for referral to the Senate.
The new fishing regulations aim to ensure that fishing activity contributes to job creation, wealth generation and social cohesion in the coastal areas of Spain, as well as strengthening the link between science and political action in this matter.
Specifically, the approval of this new regulation is part of the programmatic commitment that the Government acquired and that is based on updating the State Maritime Fishing Law, promulgated in 2001, to adapt it to the current situation and reality of the sector, incorporating all the legislative developments at community level and on the governance of the oceans produced in the last 20 years.
The new law introduces the power to adopt measures to strengthen the conservation and sustainable use of fishing resources, such as limiting the volume of catches or regulating the fishing effort, the gear and gear used, the weight or size of the species, or the establishment of closed seasons.
Likewise, the law intends to strengthen measures to defend and regenerate fishing resources, such as the declaration of special protection areas or the introduction of preventive measures for susceptible activities.
The new fishing norm also includes reduction coefficients for the retirement age of some groups of workers in the field of the sea and fishing, whose professions are very exhausting.
In this way, the netters, neskatillas and packers, occupations carried out mostly by women and who will now have a coefficient of 0.15 to reduce the minimum age to receive the retirement pension.
Shellfish collectors on foot will also be taken into account, thus being equated with shellfish collectors afloat, and professional divers. A measure that will benefit about 5,300 workers in the fishing sector.
