'People are leaving their boats tied up' - Mallorcan octopus fishing crisis

"Pulpo" is the roar from the front of a boat every time an octopus trap is thrown on board.

Tony is one of a crew of three pulling up hundreds of these plastic pots under Mallorca's azure sky, pots baited with sardines, to lure in octopus.

Pulpo, or octopus, is a beloved Spanish delicacy. More is eaten in Spain than anywhere else in the world - as much as 85,000 tonnes consumed per year.

Yet despite this huge demand, there is more uncertainty than ever among fishing professionals.

N'Alegría - a term for 'happiness' -  is the name of the boat that CGTN is on board. Used daily on the island, it's a catamaran with a three-man crew captained by Lucas Ramis, a local Mallorcan who just bought the boat, switching from plumbing to fishing because of a love for the sea.

"Before the war I paid 78 cents a liter to fill her up, and a couple of days ago it was up at 1.65 per liter," Ramis says.

"Pulpo" is the cry again, after over ten minutes of empty pots. It's a beauty weighing in at five kilograms, but Lucas needs many more like this one.

"Today it was more expensive coming out to work than just staying in the port," he says, after a day cut short by an international windsurfing competition and many empty pots.

They pulled up only 10 kilos' worth of octopus in total, and at a price of less than 15 US dollars a kilo, the fuel costs were barely even covered.

'Huge effect'

As the war in Iran drags on, fuel prices continue to soar, and Lucas says the cost of filling the tanks has more than doubled.

"It's having a huge effect," he continues, "some people are just tying up their boats, not even coming out on the sea."

Others have to work more to try and offset these fuel costs.

The Spanish government has tried to ease the pain by announcing a six-billion dollar aid package in March to alleviate the effects of the fuel crisis resulting from the war in Iran, including around $30 million for the fishing industry.

But insiders say the subsidies often get lost in the fine print.

Domingo Bonin Bautista, who has fished these waters for over four decades is Balearic Fishery Workers' Association President.

"The fishing sector is history, tradition, and culture," he states proudly.

"All the big ports and tourist spots that are now famous on the island started as fishing villages some 400 years ago. Now there are 266 fishing vessels and exactly 466 professional fishers on the Formentera, Menorca, Ibiza, and Mallorca islands."

Jump-shock

For the bigger trawlers it's even worse, he says. Fifty percent of their fixed costs come in fuel, and the jump-shock in prices since the US-Israeli invasion of Iran is putting livelihoods in peril.

"The fuel for fishing vessels here has seen a real rise of over 80%," asserts Bautista. "We are drowning in taxes and rising costs and we need this government help now," he continues, getting more animated.

"The subsidies have to be agile, easy to access, and fast. I mean some of this government aid is actually loans, but who's going to take out a loan now with this instability and how indebted this industry already is. Nobody goes out to sea to make a loss.

"The happiness has gone from around here," he concludes.

'Happiness,' coincidentally, is the name of Lucas' boat, but he says he isn't giving up.

"This war, nor anything else is going to stop us from getting out on the sea and doing our job," the captain says, determinedly, as he stands beside a pile of empty octopus traps.