The Government listens to Menorcan fishermen & will ask to go out every day to fish for lobster

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, Joan Simonet, accompanied by the Director General of Fisheries, Antoni M. Grau, has met with representatives of the fishermen's guilds of Mahon, Ciutadella and Fornells to discuss the various issues of concern to the sector in the short and long term.

The main issue on the table was that of lobster fishing in Menorca. It should be remembered that the Balearic Islands are the only community in Spain where small-scale lobster fishing still exists. This is because the archipelago has special regional and state regulations that establish a seven-month ban. At the proposal of the Govern, this year, this state regulation has been changed and the effort has been reduced by half, with the logical initial misgivings of the sector.

However, the season has gone quite well, but there is one point of the regulation, specifically the one referring to weekends, which has not been satisfactorily resolved. The fishermen of Menorca want to be able to go out every day and not leave their nets in the sea from Saturday to Monday. On this point, both councilors Simonet and Antoni Grau have stressed that they are in agreement with the sector. 

Thus, they have conveyed to the fishermen the intention to negotiate with the Ministry, now that it is no longer in office, the change of the regulations in the sense that the fishermen of Menorca are asking for.

Along these lines, Simonet stressed that "lobster and lobster fishing are a flagship of Menorca, linked to the model of sustainable exploitation that characterizes the island and which must be maintained and defended".

However, during the meeting other issues were also analyzed and assessed, such as the problems of the lack of sailors and the stoppages of trawlers.