“In the north, they were catching what we think was too much, about 4,000 kilos a day. With better management, we could have been working both north and south at this time,” challenged Mário Galhardo, president of the Algarve fishermen’s cooperative (Barlapescas), in statements to Lusa.


Fishing for this species is closed “at a time when the anchovy occurs naturally on the southern coast” and at a time when it would be “an alternative to the ban on sardines,” he said.


With the ban on sardine fishing “a few days ago”, the fishermen have directed their catch towards mackerel and, in the meantime, “anchovies have appeared, clean, of good quality, without mixture”, something that has not happened for years, but “at a time when there was no quota available”.


November is the last month in which fishermen can operate in 2019, before making the biological stop, “as in other years” and this ban makes this period more “complicated,” said Mario Galhardo.


The president of Barlapescas proposes, together with Olhãopesca, to take up the issue with the government and demand, by 2020, a more balanced management of the anchovy quota with the implementation of measures that are reflected in each of the geographical areas, so as to allow fishing throughout the period.