Cetmar will draft the preliminary draft of the marine aquaculture law

The Consellería do Mar (Department of the Sea) has commissioned the Fundación Centro Tecnológico del Mar (Cetmar) to prepare a draft preliminary project for the regulation of marine aquaculture in Galicia. The commission was formalized through a resolution dated July 22, 2026, by the regional department and was made public this Wednesday, October 21, in the Diario Oficial de Galicia (DOG no. 200), on page 53226. This is a preliminary step toward the future sectoral regulation that will organize aquaculture activity in the community.

The publicity of the commission is channeled through a resolution dated October 13, 2026, from the General Technical Secretariat of the Consellería do Mar, signed by Marta Barreiro Castro, which reports two management commissions to the in-house entity Cetmar to be executed during the years 2026, 2027, and 2028. The dissemination is supported by Article 8 of Law 19/2013, of December 9, on transparency, access to public information, and good governance, and the document bears the official reference ty74xle9-lpb9-lq05-re30-ccysf4bt4sg9.

The text is part of the Xunta’s habitual practice of resorting to its own instrumental entities for technical and study work, without market competition, under the framework of Law 16/2010, of December 17, on the organization and functioning of the general Administration and the regional public sector of Galicia.

A commission to an instrumental in-house entity

The commission is justified because Cetmar is considered an instrumental in-house entity and a technical service of the general Administration of the Autonomous Community, in compliance with Articles 10, 47, and following of Law 16/2010. The details of the commission are as follows:

• Activity: carrying out the actions to provide the service of preparing a draft preliminary project for the regulation of marine aquaculture in Galicia.
• Nature: management commission to in-house entities, without bidding.
• Validity period: from July 28, 2026, to November 30, 2026.
• Funding: budgets of the Autonomous Community of Galicia for 2026, budgetary application 16.02.723A.641.2, project code 2024 00155.

70% European co-financing

The action is 70% co-financed by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), which links the preparatory work for the future law to the framework of the 2021-2027 operational program. The remainder of the cost will be covered by the regional budgets allocated in application 16.02.723A.641.2.

The fixed deadline, which ends on November 30, 2026, places the delivery of the draft a few months after the formalization of the commission in July, so that the preliminary project can enter ordinary administrative processing.

Second commission for the mussel sector

The same resolution publicizes a second assignment to Cetmar, in this case approved by a resolution dated September 17, 2026, from the Consellería do Mar, focused on the coordination of actions to improve the capacity of mussel producers’ associations:

• Object: transfer of results from the APROMEX project to the mussel producers’ associations of Galicia.
• Validity period: from September 22, 2026, to September 30, 2028.
• Funding: regional budgets for 2026, 2027, and 2028, with the same application 16.02.723A.641.2 and the same project code 2024 00155.

More assignments to own means on the same day

DOG no. 200 publishes two other assignments from the Consellería do Mar to instrumental entities in the same section III, confirming a day of regularization of internal assignments:

• Seaga (Empresa Pública de Servizos Agrarios Galegos, S.A.): physical regeneration of the substrate in shellfish banks from the Autonomous Community’s vessel for 2026 and 2027, with validity from October 10, 2026, to November 30, 2027 (p. 53225).
• Tragsa (Empresa de Transformación Agraria, S.A., S.M.E., M.P.): management of the clam fattening service in rafts in the Galician rías (p. 53224).

The relevance of the news lies in the fact that Galicia, Spain’s leading aquaculture power, lacks an updated sectoral regulation of its own, and the draft commissioned to Cetmar will be the basis upon which the future preliminary bill is built. The Galician aquaculture sector, which directly employs thousands of people and supplies a large part of the national market for turbot, gilt-head bream, sea bass, and mussels, thus awaits a regulatory text that should see the light of day after the delivery scheduled for the end of November 2026.

Source: Diario Oficial de Galicia, no. 200, October 21, 2026, section III, p. 53226 (official reference: ty74xle9-lpb9-lq05-re30-ccysf4bt4sg9).