San Sebastián (EFE).- The Basque fleet has caught 1.1 million kilos of anchovy and 2 million kilos of mackerel this season.
Basque fleet: anchovy and mackerel
The Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, has released these figures in Hondarribia (Gipuzkoa). In this town the presentation of the mackerel campaign took place this Friday. This species is now included in the Eusko Label quality seal.
In this way, the quality certification that already exists for anchovy and tuna is now extended to mackerel, as long as it meets the demanding requirements established in the regulation.
The fish identified with the distinctive Eusko Label will be mackerel of the Scomber scombrus species caught in the usual area of the Basque inshore artisanal fleet, while the permitted fishing modalities will be hook and purse seine.
Basque Label
When classifying fish by categories, quality issues such as external appearance, skin or consistency will be taken into consideration, the Basque Government has reported in a statement.
The capture period for this species can be carried out throughout the year, although the most common time for its fishery is usually from February to April.
Tapia has explained, in this sense, that the mackerel has begun to enter a little later than usual, but has remarked that at the moment the campaign is developing satisfactorily both in quantity and price and has wanted it to remain that way In the next weeks.
In fact, in the first important discharge of mackerel, the arrantzales of Euskadi have captured 2,080,696 kilos and the average price per kilo has been 1.31 euros.
As for the anchovy, the kilograms caught have risen to 1,105,357 and the average price has stood at 1.68 euros per kilo, the counselor specified.
anchovy and bonito quotas
Tapia has once again demanded that the Basque inshore fleet manage the anchovy and bonito quotas from the Basque Country so that it can distribute the catches in a “much more appropriate” way, as is already the case with txitxarro and mackerel.
The Basque inshore fleet already made this request last year, when it advocated an individualized distribution of the state quotas for anchovy and bonito, fundamental species for the sector, which in 2021 accounted for 83% of its turnover.
The Basque fishermen claim that, as is already the case with mackerel, the anchovy and bonito quotas have a different distribution, which allows the allocation of quantities by boat or autonomous community to put an end to an “Olympic fishing” that, in their opinion, is obsolete.