The Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds of Asturias has announced this Saturday the call for demonstrations in the sector to demand the withdrawal of Spain’s Maritime Space Management Plans (POEM), which define the areas to develop wind energyIn addition, they also await the resignation of the Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera.
The patrons of the 19 Asturian brotherhoods have decided to support the demonstration on March 11 in front of the Government Delegation in A Coruña and are preparing mobilizations in Asturias, starting on March 18, for which they will ask for support from organizations in the primary sector.
More than 11,000 jobs at stake
Fishermen they reject the installation of parks generation of electrical energy through mills installed in the sea in areas of fishing grounds, which are considered “attack” biodiversity and will kill off some species and with the traditional way of life of thousands of families.
The fishing sector in Asturias affects some 1,500 jobs at sea and generates more than 10,000 jobs on landwho see their future in danger, highlighted the president of the Federation of Brotherhoods, Adolfo Garcia, at the press conference in which they announced mobilizations.
Garcia has conditioned the possibility of establish a negotiation with the Government on this subject to the resignation of Minister Teresa Ribera and the withdrawal of the POEMs, approved by the Council of Ministers on February 28.
protected areas
The president of the Federation has said that, for the approval of these plans, “the Asturian fishing sector was not counted on at all” and they contemplate “unacceptable” measures such as the installation in fishing grounds and protected areas such as El cañón de Avilés and El Cachucho, has pointed out.
He has explained that electromagnetic radiation and the noise of the mills will cause the disappearance of animal marine life in three miles around the parks, something that he has said has been verified by the fishermen of Portugal that fish in waters close to the mills.
García has assured that the fishermen of Asturias are not against renewable energies, but they are not going to “consent that the sea be auctioned, nor that be privatized for the benefit of electric companies”. In addition, he has warned that the installation of wind farms in the North Atlantic demarcation, between the Bay of Biscay and the border with Portugal, will cause overfishing in the areas that remain free.
The Council of Ministers has approved the first plans for the planning of the maritime space in Spain which, among other issues, delimit the areas in which offshore wind power may be developed, which, as a whole, add up to 5,000 square kilometers0.46% of national waters.
The Government has given the green light to a royal decree approving the Maritime Space Management Plans (POEM) for each of the five Spanish maritime demarcations (North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Strait and Alborán, Levantino-Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands), valid until 2027 and reviewable every six years.
