Trawling is limited to shrimp

The Large-scale trawling will be limited to shrimp onlyafter the Government amended the regulations of Law 204 of 2021, which regulates fisheries and aquaculture in Panama.

In the changes whiting, bighead, sole and bream are excluded from fishing with trawls on a large scale, which were previously included in Article 17 of Executive Decree 13 of November 1, 2013.

Environmental protection organizations have shown discomfort that this type of fishing is allowed because It is harmful to marine ecosystems.

On the other hand, fishing organizations confirm that trawling is not new in the country and what they have done with the regulation was to limit the species that can be huntedbecause there were no restrictions before.

Another change is that it is Board of Directors of the Water Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP)supported by a technical-scientific report, new fisheries acceptable for exploitation will be determined with an indication of fishing areas, target species and bycatch, seasons and fishing tools with which they can be carried out.

Additionally, Article 138, which governs use of ports abroad and it was explained that any vessel under the Panamanian flag that carries out fishing activities and intends to enter and use a foreign port will have the obligation to use the current regulations of the country that regulate the competent port.

The articles related to sanctionsare also modified.

TheThe changed penalties reach up to 50 thousand dollars for serious offenses not related to production, processing, conversion, storage, export facilities, or fishing or fishing-related activities of the international or foreign service, for fishing offenses, fishing-related activities and related activities.