A new crisis has hit professional shellfishermen along the Costa Vicentina in the western Algarve. Last week’s powerful wave surge destroyed more than 70% of the stocks of ‘perceves’ (goose barnacles) just as the local delicacies were ‘free’ to be collected after a three-month state-imposed embargo.
It will now take “at least two weeks, possibly a month” for the few barnacles left attached to rock faces to recover from the sea’s pounding and be ready for picking – and that leaves a number of local families waiting, yet again, for the chance of earning money.
“I don’t know how families that depend on catching perceves will live over the next few months,” Paulo Barata, president of the local association of shellfishermen, told reporters after last week’s storms. “It is a very critical situation.”
Colleague and lifelong perceves fisherman Carlos Climaco added: “It’s the same every year, and it’s a terrible situation for all of us. We’re prevented by law from fishing for three months – between September 15 and December 15 – only to see the sea take everything we’ve been waiting to grow on the rocks in an instant, and leave us with nothing.
“Last week’s waves were larger than usual, but we lose perceves this way every year. The timing of the embargo is completely wrong. It has created a situation where everyone loses. We lose, restaurants lose, and the area as a whole loses. Once people realise there are no perceves available, they don’t even bother coming here,” he added.
Vila do Bispo is on the gourmet route for goose barnacles, boasting a number of well-known local restaurants that like to stock them, and an annual shellfish festival that attracts thousands every summer.
“Last year was incredible,” Carlos Climaco told us.”I think we sold around 10 tons of perceves.”
Fishermen have been fighting the timing of the three-month embargo since it was imposed seven years ago, he added. “We realise the sense in giving time for perceves to grow, but the period chosen is not the right one. As an association, we have given the authorities a number of proposals. For instance, we could have a staggered embargo on different months of the year, or embargoes on particular days of the week – but to stop us from earning our livelihoods for a full three-month stretch every year, just as the demand for perceves is high and just before devastating rough seas which come every year, makes no sense at all. We’re out of pocket for three months while the perceves grow, only to see them pulled off the rocks in storms almost as soon as we’re able to start fishing again.”
Why, we ask, was the embargo chosen for such an inconvenient time? “It’s the way this country works,” he told us. “It’s very difficult to convince the authorities when they have made a bad decision. It’s the same with the Via do Infante! Everyone knows the tolls make no sense. Everyone knows they are damaging people’s way of life, but the authorities won’t budge.”
Climaco was talking to us as he returned from a look at last week’s storm damage.
“There are rocks that have been shattered by the sea. It’s quite incredible what happened. There’s a huge amount of damage to the cliffs running up to Cape St Vincent, and perceves have been literally wiped clean off the rock faces.
“The ones that are left are all ‘sick’. It will take at least two weeks, maybe as much as a month for them to recover, and, in the meantime, we all have bills to pay.”
The shellfishermen’s association will be meeting shortly to discuss new tactics in their bid to change the government’s “devastating policies” that see them out of pocket every winter.
“With better management, our sector could so easily recover,” Carlos Climaco concluded.
By NATASHA DONN [email protected]
