AM-CC Fuerteventura backs fishermen in rejecting mandatory onboard weighing

The Majorera Assembly–Canarian Coalition (AM‑CC) has voiced its backing for the Canary Islands’ artisanal fishing sector in response to the opposition generated by the requirement to weigh catches aboard vessels, a measure stemming from European legislation.

The political formation argues that this regulation does not fit the daily reality of artisanal fishing in the Canary Islands and calls for a revision that takes the archipelago’s fleet particularities into account.

The regulation mandates that catches be weighed during processing with a limited tolerance margin. According to AM‑CC, if the weight estimated at sea later differs from the figure recorded on the port scale, fishers could face financial penalties.

The organization points out that the current European tolerance margin is 10 %, a percentage it deems “excessively restrictive” for the work carried out by the artisanal fleet.

AM‑CC Fuerteventura maintains that many of these discrepancies arise from simple estimation errors during fishing activities, not from fraudulent practices or illegal fishing.

The party also echoes the sector’s criticism of other administrative and digital requirements, such as the mandatory pre‑notice system for port arrivals, which are considered difficult to implement in the context of Canary shallow‑water fishing.

In this regard, they remind that the Canary Islands are classified as an ultra‑peripheral region within the European Union and argue that its specific conditions should be taken into account when applying such regulations.

AM‑CC believes the current demands reflect a lack of understanding of the real conditions under which Canary artisanal fishing operates, especially on small vessels where, as they note, it is challenging to halt activities to sort and weigh catches without disrupting workflow and compromising safety.

The formation also highlights that practices such as artisanal tuna fishing are carried out under sustainable and traditional criteria, based on selective catches and manual handling.

Consequently, the sector demands that any weight discrepancies detected upon arrival at port be correctable without automatically leading to financial sanctions.

Finally, the Majorera Assembly–Canarian Coalition reiterated its support for Canary artisanal fishing, defending the need for a “fairer and more adapted” regulatory framework that reflects the sector’s reality in the islands.