Portugal mainland - Profile


1. Portugal Mainland : P1
1. Overview
The area defined as Portugal Mainland P1 covers the whole of mainland Porrtugal. In 1996 there were 9,319 registered vessels, some 1,804 of these were without a motor. Multipurpose vessels comprise the majority of the fleet ( 96%). Most are small with an average size of 4 GRT and 19.5 kW and catch a wide range of species using different gears in almost exclusively coastal operations.
The coastal trawl fleet consisted of 113 vessels in 1996, with an average size of 134 GRT and
472 kW these vessels target dermersal fish, cephalopods, shrimp and horse mackerel and were mainly based in Aveiro and Lisbon.
In 1996 there were 178 seiners (44 GRT and 204 kW) targeting sardines and mainly located in the North (Matosinhos), Lisbon VT (Peniche) and Algarve (Olhao).
The distant water fleet comprises of approximately 58 large vessels ( 756 GRT and 1132 kW). The main centres of operations are Aveiro and Lisbon.
Landings for Portugal Mainland were in the region of 174,009 tonnes valued at 221,188,081 ECU in 1996. The most important regions are in Lisbon e Vale do Tejo ( 38% of value) and Algarve (26% of value). The most important landings are clams and octopus (21.6% of value of mainland landings) and +sardine (15%).
There are 136 processing establishments of which 29 produce canned or other preserved fish and the remainder undertake processing and distribution of salted, fresh and frozen fish.
Processing is dominated by bacalhau (salted cod) drying which account for 53% of output. Total value of processing output (sales) in 1995 was 433,441,268 ECU corresponding to 139,000 tonnes of finished product. Industrial canning uses mainly imported tuna but does process some tuna from the Azores.

2. Coastal Fishing Employment
The data collected on numbers of fishers in Portugal is derived from a direct survey of 31 Port Authorities and indicates that there are 24,194 fishers registered in Portugal Mainland.
3. Processing Employment
The Ministério de Trabalho data for processing employment is considered to be reliable as most operators operate officially and provide adequate data returns. A total of 5,059 people work in processing. In terms of numbers of persons employed the main locations of processing are Matosinhos (732), Peniche (801), Olhao (423) and VRS Antonio (268). In the most dependent areas 77% of the persons employed are held by women.

4. Vessel Construction and Repair Employment
The total number employed in vessel construction and repair in the most dependent regions was 1,163. The NUTS 4 region of Viana Castelo in the North of Portugal was excluded due to activities not related with fishing vessels. In terms of numbers, the most important area was Aveiro with 389 vessel construction and repair persons employed, followed by Figueira da Foz both located in the central region of Portugal.

5. Marine Aquaculture Employment
Aquaculture employment data suffers from under representation in the official statistics, in the same way as fishing. Aquaculture is also often poorly defined and some data includes viveiros harvesting of bivalve molluscs. Viveiros concerns the harvesting of natural production of molluscs in the estuarine waters; mainly clams but also cockles. There are 4,800 people involved in this sector, mostly situated on the Algarve coast (4,500 persons). Within the Algarve region the Ria Formosa area is known to be the most important with approximately 980 active people.
There are 130 active finfish enterprises providing employment for 459 people. Production is mostly of seabass or sea bream and is located around Aveiro, Baixo Vouga and Baixo Mondego and the Algarve.

6. Inland Aquaculture Employment
There are 24 establishments employing a total of 83 people, 13 of these enterprises (employing 57 persons) are located in the Norte region (NUTS 3 regions of Tamega, Entre Douro e Vouga and Alto Tras os Montes).

7. Inland Fishing Employment
In 1996, there were 1,939 professional fishing licences issued. Anecdotal evidence suggests that only few of these are full time. Most are likely to be recreational fishers who may then sell some of the catch.