The trawler fishing fleet based in Motril Port has been biting its nails, waiting for a decision from the EU over an appeal by the Government to allow more fishing days.

If you have been following this, you will know that the EU wanted to reduce the permitted days that the trawlers can go out to fish to only nine days a year… try running a business on that!

However, the EU Board of Ministers for Fishing anounced in the early hours of a Saturday something that gives hope: during 2026 the trawlers can fish the same amount of days that they were allowed in 2025; i.e. 143 days a year.

Those 143 days, which were previously viewed by fishermen as a death knell now sound like a gift from heaven compared with the nine days, which would have totally killed the industry.

This change of stance from the EU is down to pressure from Spain, France and Italy, although one can’t help thinking that it was a clever sales tactic by the EU: everybody had complained at the limitation of 143 days, but they now appear like a Godsend, so there is no complaining like when that limitation was announced in 2024 for 2025!

There is also good news for fishermen in that no further regulations have been added to those already in force: existing measures from last year were seasonal closures, mesh-size changes, and ‘flying doors’ to reduce trawling impact.

What the hell is a flying door, you may ask. A flying door on a trawler net is a steel plate  that instead of dragging on the seabed, stays suspended a few meters above, ‘flying’ over the bottom to reduce drag, fuel consumption, and environmental impact, whilst at the same time keeping the net open horizontally. 

But in the end,  this small victory is a rearguard action against the ever nearing demise of the sector. Drastic cuts in fishing days under the Western Mediterranean multi-annual plan, with days falling from 260 in 2019 to 143 in 2024-2026 (a 45% reduction), meant that fishermen now work around seven months a year, making it very difficult to sustain their livelihoods, despite recent EU agreements to maintain these reduced days.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Fishing Fleet, Motril Port, Trawler Fleet, Fishing Restrictions, EU

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