The regional secretary of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment, Rafaela Fernandes, together with her team met with limpet harvesters to address some concerns raised by these professionals.
8 of the 9 shipowners were present at this meeting, according to a press release.
“The issue is the lack of limpets (Lapas) caused by adverse natural phenomena, a situation that shipowners warn could jeopardize the sector due to the disappearance of this marine resource,” he adds.
The note also states that “the shipowners are requesting the suspension of limpet harvesting given the evidence of a drastic reduction in the resource, immediately bringing forward the start of the normal closed season period, scheduled to start on 1 November and end on 31 March”.
It also says that another of the demands involves increasing the closed season from 5 to 6 months, that is, extending it to the month of April. And the review of the harvesting regime for family purposes with a reduction in the daily limit to 1.5 kg and only permitted on weekends and holidays.
He adds that the Regional Secretariat for Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment will also promote a meeting with individual holders of licenses for catching limpets without a vessel, for commercial purposes, to analyze the same concerns.
It also says that the services of the Regional Fisheries Directorate are evaluating this situation and periodically carry out resource assessments.
“From the monitoring that has been carried out, technicians argue that the extension of the closed season will be an added value to safeguard the reproduction of the species”, he highlights.
The press release recalls that limpet control has been carried out for several years as it is one of the species selected for the National Data Collection Program. A program that arises from European regulatory obligations.
And he concludes: “Data from 2023, the limpet harvest was around 78,500 kg, corresponding to around 630 thousand euros. In 2022, it was around 88 thousand kg, corresponding to around 644 thousand euros”.