“In the port of Los Cristianos we feel cornered and abandoned,” Telesforo Manuel Díaz, senior patron of the Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes Fishermen’s Guild, is so clear, who regrets the scant aid that the sector has received during the pandemic, when they have had “the worst tuna harvest in history.” In addition, he is outraged that the help promised by the Arona City Council, of 42,000 euros, has not been made effective, as a credit modification is not approved in plenary session.
The Los Cristianos brotherhood is the largest of tuna boats in the Canary Islands, about 20 out of the total of 57 vessels it has, with 160 fishermen, who directly employ about 300 people. “In my case, I have two boats that employ about 12 people, including a 25-year-old son to whom I am grateful that he follows in his father’s footsteps, but it is very difficult to convince young people to dedicate themselves to this work. In fishing there is no generational change. The future in five or ten years is zero and look, I have always been an optimistic man. There are already people who have dedicated themselves to selling their boats and working on land, earning less, but it is safer. It is depressing for one who has spent his whole life fishing. We have not become rich, but we have been able to support the family ”.
Despite the fact that the bluefin tuna quota for Canarian artisanal boats has increased, Manuel Díaz is not satisfied: “No way, it has increased relatively, because bluefin tuna is a tuna that is sold fresh and there is very little quantity, because it is only fished in a month. It sells for five or six euros a kilo and for the work it gives, it does not compensate, but you have to go yes or yes, obviously. Here if there is no tuna, we tend to disappear, because 85% of the income is thanks to tuna ”.
Now the keg
Manuel Díaz’s boats, as well as many of the brotherhood, fish in all the islands and at this time they are going out to fish for the barrel, “now that Spain opened the hand with 213 tons for the so-called albacore tuna, catching 15 or 20 pieces of about 25 kilos, which have a good price ”, for what they dedicate 24 hours when they do it in the surroundings of Tenerife,“ first catching the bait and then fishing for tuna, with a hook, we go out at night and arrive at night , it states.
He denounces that the fishermen feel “too many cornered in the port of Los Cristianos. There is a saying that there is no bed for so many people and the port is already very saturated. The shipping companies give us nothing, but we have to live together, there is no other. The recreational ones? They cannot grow any more, but they are also cornered on the same dock. Among the quotas, the absence of aid and that we cannot grow, that is why there are those who are taking the boats to Las Galletas or Los Abrigos ”.
Deny that fish has risen in price. “No way, it should be like that, because it remains the same. We do not advance. Diesel through the roof, with 82 cents a liter for a boat, but the price of fish remains the same ”. In addition, he recalled that, “although we have two direct sales points on the dock, large stores have done us a lot of damage”, acknowledging that 85% of the tuna they fish goes to the Peninsula.
