TWO HIGH SPEED patrol boats have joined the fight against illegal fishing off Almería waters.
'Cormorán Almería' (pictured) and ‘Rio Adra’ are two new patrol boats that have joined the Almería Fisheries Inspection Unit.
Capable of 28 and 32 knots respectively (50 and 68 kph) the two boats are more than capable of hunting down almost all any illegal fishing boat that may not have the licenses to fish, or be fishing fish stocks that are supposed to be recuperating.
They have now entered service. ‘Albatros’, a boat already in service, is to be retired, and ‘Alcotán’, which entered service just a couple of years ago, will continue.
Andalucia has been alarmed by declining fish stocks off its coasts, and has stepped up in recent years the fight against the sale of young fish (inmaduros), once considered a delicacy in the local restaurants.
Juan Deus, provincial delegate of fisheries, said that “these two boats are necessary because on the spot inspections are a major tool in the fight to prevent the fishing of illegal fish stocks - we are attempting to dissuade people from doing it, not fining people for doing it, and it is just one of the ways we are collaborating with the fishing fleets in the province”.
The boats costs a total of 1,4 million euros, financed 80% by the Junta and 20% by the EU.
The Fisheries Inspection Unit is in charge of controlling the amount and type of fish caught off the coasts of Andalucia, and unloaded in its ports, a task carried out in conjunction with the Guardia Civil.
In 2009, the unit fined 1,342 fishermen for  different reasons. 346 of those fines were levied after inspections at sea. Around two thirds of these fines were eventually waived on appeal.
Of those fines, 338 were for professional fishermen and 8 for sport fishermen. Just one hundred of those fines were for catching underage fish or for using prohibited fishing gear.
There are currently 300 fishing boats in Almería, employing around 1,200 fishermen on board.
The most common reason for a fine to be levied is for exceeding the amount of time permitted for fishing, followed by the illegal catching of species outside of their allocated fishing season.
In the case of sports fishermen, fishing without a permit, or fishing using illegal fishing gear was the most common reason for levying a fine.
“We now have a boat on all three of Almería’s main coasts” explained Sr Deus, “and this means that we can efficiently control fishermen across the province. By working together with the fishing fleet we can rotate the types of fish we are catching, permitting certain fish stocks time to recover and ensuring a supply of fish for the future”.

40 families have lost around three million euros in deposits after an Almería based builder went into liquidation.
LAR-Comarex Desarrollos SL was building a series of semi detached homes near the Torrecardenas hospital in Almería city.
However, the homes, contracted to be handed over to owners last July, were never finished after the builder ran into financial problems.
Owners mounted a joint legal offensive on the owners of the company, and the police have launched an investigation after company workers turned up last week to discover the offices of the company empty and the owners disappeared.
Owners had paid between 17,000 and 72,000 euros each to reserve one of the affordable homes.
Although some of the owners are covered under a bank guarantee, it is feared that more than half of the deposits were illegally left unsecured.
Workers of LAR-Comarex have denounced that they have been left unpaid by the disappearance of the company.+
“We turned up to work and nobody was there. We have not been paid and we have not been laid off, just abandoned” said one of the disgruntled workers.
They have announced plans to picket the offices of the main investor, which is based in Granada, until “somebody pays us the money we are owed”.
Meanwhile, the people who have invested in the company are doubling their legal efforts to seize any assets that LAR-Comarex has left in the province.