Fishermen's Guild of Ciutadella, El Iris Agriculture and Local Product Award

Ciutadella has always been a seafaring city and part of our idiosyncrasy is thanks to living on the sea. Our culture with the celebration of the Virgin Mary, our gastronomy so linked to sea products, even our architecture with examples such as the wonderful Plaça des Peix... always facing the sea. And now, more than ever, we must be by our fishermen's side. The few fishing boats left, the lack of generational renewal, the conditions set by European regulations... We must all make an effort and not allow the art of fishing to be lost.
El Iris Awards 2024 – Award presentation speech

This is not the first time that the Fishermen's Guild of Ciutadella has starred in the pages of Foodies on Menorca. In fact, for five years now, it has been a recurring feature of our current affairs. However, the popularity that this entails is not at all something positive for these people of the sea. Fishermen, not only from Ciutadella, but from Menorca in general, and the Mediterranean if we want to go further, have seemed to live in a constant gymkhana for years. Always overcoming tests, to find new ones again. Without ever knowing what will happen the next day.
This is one of the professions most mistreated by modern times.
For this reason, for the constant struggle, for not giving up, for its key role in the history and current affairs of the municipality, the El Iris Awards 2024 wanted to award the Fishermen's Brotherhood of Ciutadella with one of the two Agriculture and Local Product awards.

This week we spoke with Xavi Marquès, Patron General of the Brotherhood.

How did you receive this El Iris Agriculture and Local Product Award?
On the one hand, we celebrated it a lot. We are very happy that they want to give us a voice and presence in this way, and more so in times like these. But precisely for this reason, on the other hand it is a shame that they give us an award partly because of our constant struggle. They give it to us for the local product, but specifically for the demands we are making for it. And the feeling in front of this is ambiguous.

We are very grateful for the award. But we would love it more not to have to receive awards or be on the front pages constantly, and to be able to work calmly, without having to demand the same thing all the time. Without having to constantly fight to be able to continue doing our job. One that is very necessary for the people of Ciutadella, and which continues to have a great demand.

Likewise, it is also true that, and listening to what was said at the presentation of the El Iris 2024 Awards, the complicated situation is experienced by many of us, not just fishermen. The example of local magazines was given, which are also having a hard time. It's all a constant fight against globalization, and the lobbies, or pressure groups, which, as the concept itself indicates, push for policies to be made that benefit them. And this affects both fishermen and the media. Like many other sectors. They are eating us up, little by little.

What would you say is the current situation? This year you had to fight against a major European restriction, and you managed to achieve something...
We don't really know how we're doing, honestly.
At the moment we know when we started, but we don't know when we'll finish, or how. If we'll drown along the way or not.
It's very sad, in general terms. Because we're keeping up. And yes, we know that they say 'one day passes, another year pushes', but we want to work more calmly, we don't want to push more...
Right now there are shrimp to catch, but we have a limit of kilos. Even though the fishery is in good condition, and it allows us to catch more. Why is that? We don't know. Demand is not decreasing, and the supply we can bring them is decreasing every day.

On the other hand, a new type of distribution has also been made, which takes into account the company's results from previous years. And although not everyone can always be happy, the truth is that there are ways to do things... Now, for example, in Maó there is a boat that has been operating for more than forty years. But these last few years have not been good for them, due to various personal problems, and the results have fallen. And this year, when they were raising their heads again, they found that their shrimp limit is very low, because they have based themselves on the results of the previous three years, which is when they were going through a bad time. And they make no exceptions. Oh dear, this is a company that has been working for four decades, has a history, should they just be based on the two years in which they have not been good? It doesn't seem fair to us. And as I say, each company, each boat, is different. These things must be taken into consideration. Let them at least study it, review the case.

In addition, now, from May 1st we have to change the nets to be able to continue fishing. Some that are supposed to pay us, but that for now we have already had to buy ourselves. With a large mesh that we don't know if the shrimp will stay inside or swim out. We'll have to see.

I don't know, some things are done... that sometimes give us the feeling that they want us to drown and that's it. We go to work reluctantly. When we half-clarify one thing, a new one appears. It seems that they are testing us, to see how long we can keep holding on...

As I have always said, we agree to adapt, by taking care of the environment and the species. But what cannot be is that I go out fishing to go for a walk, and I can't catch anything. It's ridiculous.

And the only thing this does is that the profession is dying. Who will start a new business as a fisherman if they don't know if they will be able to fish next week? Who will make such a large investment when they have no certainty or security?

So, after all the measures, have you not noticed any improvement?
Regarding fisheries, yes, certainly.
But the restrictions continue to increase. When at first they didn't say so. And there comes a point where we don't really understand why they do it. It seems that instead of doing science, which is what they claim, and wanting to help the species, what they do is politics. And that's enough.

We need them to help us, to support us, for those who can, to go to Europe and fight for us. To make them see that they are drowning a trade, that we people can't stand it much longer like this.

That's why we are very happy to have received this El Iris Award, because maybe this way it is easier for politicians to see the importance of fighting, of helping us, and to realize that people want local products, and by going here, we are depriving them of this.