Spain’s Fishing Industry: History and Modern Challenges
Spain’s Fishing Industry: A Historical Perspective
Spain has been and remains a major world fishing power. This is indicated by the size of the fleet (tonnage and power), the volume of catches, and the landed value of fisheries.
Currently, the industry employs some 50,000 people working directly in fishing and another 22,000 who are engaged in the development and preservation of fish. In economic terms, fisheries contribute 0.5% of the GDP.
These data are indicative of the importance of Spanish fishing. However, when compared with those of a quarter-century ago, there has been a decline in activity. This is a consequence of the exhaustion of domestic fisheries, the new international situation at sea, Spain’s joining the European Union, etc. All these factors set a very different framework from that during the heyday of fishing in our country, which corresponded to the 1970s of the last century.
1. The Conditions of the Coast
Spain has a huge coastal perimeter. However, we cannot say that this coastline presents very favorable conditions.
- In the Atlantic Ocean, with the logical differences between latitudes as diverse as the Bay of Biscay and the Canary Islands, there is moderate salinity (35%), with medium to cool temperatures, ocean currents that facilitate the distribution of plankton, and an oscillation of water levels up to four feet due to tidal effects. This allows the existence of a coastal strip of several hectometers wide, alternately submerged and emerged, which facilitates shellfish harvesting on the beach sand. The Atlantic coast in the northeast mainland presents a joint that lengthens the coastal perimeter and encourages the installation of basins and marine farming.
- The Mediterranean is a sea of warmer waters. It contains less phytoplankton than the ocean and has no tides.
Marine and coastal differences justify the diversity of fauna and the traditional wealth, both in kind and quality. These include sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and tuna.
In recent decades, our seas have become less important as fishing grounds due to overexploitation. Ports are becoming more specialized and have been converted into unloading bays for species caught in faraway waters.
2. Fishing: A Traditional Activity in Transition
Fishing in Hispanic seas has a history dating back to prehistoric times and reached a commercial scale in the Roman era when large canning factories and fish sauces such as Garum were established for export to Rome.
In the Middle Ages, fishing continued to have a distinctive subsistence nature. In the Bay of Biscay, however, the Basques caught whales, and ships agreed to go to Newfoundland, Iceland, etc. They soon discovered the potential of cod to be eaten fresh or cured. According to tradition, trap fishing for tuna continued to be practiced for centuries, particularly in the mouth of the Guadalquivir.
From the nineteenth century, fishing acquired a new dimension due to the Industrial Revolution and the application of steam to navigation.
Trawlers with steam-driven machinery were introduced to the fleet fishing for cod and, later, mackerel. Their use markedly increased catches at a time when the railroad facilitated the transportation of fish. The textile and metal industries fabricated gear and fishing gear.
After the interruption of World War I, a modern cod fishery began in Newfoundland from 1925.
The Civil War and World War II shut down the fishery. When both concluded, the fish fauna had again increased.
Yet the most dramatic changes occurred in the 1960s, and in 1961, a law aimed at modernizing the fishing fleet was passed. In the same year, the first two freezer vessels of the Spanish fleet were launched.
Inshore fishing survived, but the bulk of the catch began to fall on a modern, fully equipped freezer fleet (industrial fishing).
3. The New Law of the Sea
Since the early Middle Ages, it was accepted that adjacent waters belonged to the coastal states, but it was not specified to what distance.
After World War II, America took a very important step towards a new Law of the Sea. In 1945, it declared ownership of existing resources in the seabed and subsoil of the continental shelf, understood as an extension of the continent.
This is the basis for Peru, Ecuador, and Chile to declare, in 1952, the waters between the coastline and two hundred miles offshore as their own. This decision was not well received, particularly by the United States, as if the measure were generalized, it could be a serious obstacle to the free movement of their fleet in the years of the Cold War. However, in 1976, the United States unilaterally declared an extension of its territorial waters to two hundred miles. There was a negotiating process in the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, and subsequently, it was generalized.
Traditional fishing grounds fell within the boundaries of custodial uses. For Spain, the consequences were immediate and very negative, as it was cut off from access to traditional grounds located in waters that had hitherto been international.
Map
a) – 1: Aragon 2: Valencia 3: Castilla León 4: Extremadura 5: Castilla la Mancha 6: Murcia 7: Andalusia.
b) – The location of irrigated agriculture in the peninsula meets the following reasons:
Firstly, the existence of major rivers in the peninsular depressions, such as the Ebro, Guadalquivir, Duero, and their tributaries, is associated with the presence of clay soil with a high fertility rate. The continuous flow of water allows for irrigated agriculture.
On the other hand, the dry climate of the peninsular east forces farmers to practice irrigated agriculture since otherwise, it would be very difficult to grow any species, including upland crops.
c) – Abundant crops include rice, sugar beet, cotton, citrus fruits, and vegetables.