Sardines

A drastic recommendation was made by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Portugal and Spain should impose a ban on sardine fishing for at least the next 15 years to allow stocks to “return to acceptable levels”.

The news is certain to cause huge concern among fishermen who have already been struggling due to increasingly smaller quotas, but Portugal’s Secretary of State for Fishing does not seem to be taking the recommendation too seriously, having guaranteed that it is based on “old and incomplete data”.

The bottom line, according to ICES, is that Portugal and Spain capture too many sardines.

The council says that the current quotas issued to the countries do not include preventive measures to limit fishing and allow stocks to rise.

Seapath believe that Portugal and Spain are fishing more than the current quotas. It´s a lot going on in the black fish market that the authorities can't or don't want control.

We, as consumers, also need to reduce the sardine consume, in this specific case, and try to not be part of big sardines festivals where the consume of sardines is tremendous.

For Seapath is unimaginable the Portuguese Sea without sardines.