«I am positively convinced that urchin fishing can be done all year round ». This is how the statement released yesterday by the Sardinia Region opened with the words, reported in long quotation marks, «from the Councilor for Agriculture, Valeria Satta , at the end of the meeting with the Fisheries Committee».
A statement in which the councilor's statements continued in clear tones: «I intend to reiterate and affirm my full conviction on the need to review the regional law on the blocking of sea urchin fishing in Sardinia ». And again: «Even during the meeting with the Fisheries Committee, I expressed my desire to meet the needs of our fishermen who inevitably find themselves penalized for the current fishing closures». Until the conclusion: « I will therefore propose, shortly, an amendment that allows the reopening of urchin fishing possibly indefinitely ».
An issue on which the reply from the Councilor for the Environment Marco Porcu arrived in the evening, who had underlined the importance of the "urchin protection policies", defined as "fundamental, and the majority of fishermen have this it happens", the clarification.
Today, therefore, the reverse , entrusted to a new statement in which the Region speaks of a "bad interpretation" of the councilor's words and of a "mere communication error" . «I specify that I have never said, and I underline it, that I want to open urchin fishing all year round because it would clearly be impossible and have an impact on our marine ecosystem, because it would destroy a species that is absolutely important to us», the words of Valeria Satta , entrusted to a new quote. «Therefore – the further clarification – I reiterate that I never said that I wanted to open urchin fishing all year round but simply to review the blockade that prevents our fishermen from going urchin fishing». «Therefore – the press release concludes – to review it as was done last year, rightly, in the Regional Council and to foresee it also for this year and possibly, according to the studies that will then emerge at the Fisheries Roundtable Committee, also for the year next".
