World Fishing exhibition officially presented in Vigo

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The official launch of this year’s World Fishing Exhibition-VIGO’09, which will take place from 16th to 19th of September, was held at the Maritime Station of Vigo last week.

Elena Espinosa, the Spanish Minister of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, presided at the event, in which the following also participated: Abel Caballero, Mayor of Vigo and President of the Organising Commission WFE; Carmen Gallego, Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs in the Galician Regional Government; José Luis Méndez, Director-General of Caixa Galicia; and Alfonso Paz-Andrade, President of the Executive Committee WFE.

Almost 500 people attended the event, including the President of the Council of La Coruña, the Delegate of the Free Trade Zone Consortium in Vigo, the President of the Confederación de Empresarios de Galicia (Confederation of Galician entrepreneurs), the President of Caixa Galicia, the President of IGAPE (the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion), the President of the Port Authority of Vigo and the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Vigo, among other representatives from the financial, political, social and cultural fields of Vigo and Galicia.

Elena Espinosa, highlighted that WFE "will offer an ideal platform to send an encouraging message, a sustainability commitment and a realistic scene from Vigo to the sector and to the international fisheries industry."

She also announced that, in the Fisheries Ministers Conference and the World Summit on Fisheries Sustainability, which will be held in parallel to WFE-VIGO'09, new political initiatives will be proposed for the international scene in which we are immersed. Ms Espinosa explained that WFE coincides with "an international moment marked by a financial crisis, the uncertainty of the fisheries industry, the exhaustion of certain fishing management models and the need to look for new answers, alternatives and ideas to guarantee sustainability and the continuity of this activity". She expressed her confidence in the future of the sector since "fisheries will continue to be a source of wealth and generation of employment", and sent a message of change "we cannot rely on the old belief by which the sea is inexhaustible and, therefore, we must direct our efforts towards a more environmentally-friendly activity"; all in all, towards sustainability, a concept that "must be integrated in our present so we can have a future".

All speakers agreed on the same point: the need to respect the environment and to responsibly and sustainably exploit fisheries; fighting against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing being the way forward to achieve this.