The fishermen are "particularly unhappy" with the anchovy fishing quota allocated this year to Portugal, which is in "total contradiction" with the 'stock' observed in the waters.

In relation to sardines, they argue that the "great contradiction between the abundance of sardines" observed in 2019 and the "miserable" scientific recommendations that will lead to the "destruction of this fishing sector" is "worrying".

In this sense, the fishermen will transmit to the Government "the great difficulties that the current situation is causing in fishing companies", as well as the social consequences for boat crews.

In declarations to Lusa, the president of the National Association of Fishermen's Organizations (ANOP Cerco) stressed that this is a "spontaneous movement of fishermen" mainly from the central and northern regions of the country, which has the support of producer organizations.

According to Humberto Jorge, the reality verified by fishermen does not coincide with that revealed by scientific data, based on mathematical calculations "which no one understands very well and which give rise to impracticable management measures".

For ANOP Cerco, which stressed that it was not behind the planned demonstration, the quotas allocated to anchovy and sardines are "clearly insufficient", the first case being "more glaring".

The stock of anchovy is growing to an "unprecedented" extent, a scenario proven by scientific cruises, but it has not been possible to increase the total allowable catches (TACs), he argued.

For 2019, the Portuguese fleet was authorised to catch up to nine thousand tonnes of sardine.

In November, the government announced that anchovy fishermen affected by the ban on fishing this species should receive compensation of between €960 euros and €1,020.

The Secretary of State for Fisheries, José Apolinário, told Lusa at the time that "compensation with community funds from the Mar 2020 program was being prepared for one month.

This "because in the 2014-2020 financial programming period only six months of compensation are possible and we have already used five", he said, recalling that the fleet that will catch anchovy also catches sardines, a species whose fishing is also currently prohibited.

José Apolinário signed an order, dated Nov. 4, to close fishing and ban "the capture, keeping on board and unloading of anchovies" by any vessel until April 1, 2020.