Fisheries opens public consultation for the 2027 closed seasons order

The General Directorate of Fisheries and Food has agreed to the joint process of hearing and public information regarding the draft Order regulating closed seasons, minimum sizes, and the harvesting of shellfish and other species of commercial interest during the 2027 season. The resolution is published in the Official Gazette of Cantabria (BOC) no. 214, dated November 6, 2026, with the official reference CVE-2026-8640, and opens a period of ten business days to submit allegations.

The text bears the signature of the Director General of Fisheries and Food, Paulino San Emeterio Pila, and is dated in Santander on October 29, 2026, within the Ministry of Rural Development, Livestock, Fisheries and Food. The resolution is issued under article 51.3 of Law 5/2018, of November 22, on the Legal Regime of the Government, the Administration and the Institutional Public Sector of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria, and orders the publication of the agreement in both the BOC and the Transparency Portal of Cantabria.

Second step after the prior consultation

The process began a month earlier: BOC no. 192, dated October 6, 2026, published the resolution with reference CVE-2026-7718, which submitted the future project to the prior public consultation process, with a period then of 20 calendar days. That announcement established the four points on which opinions were requested from citizens, organizations, and associations: the problems to be solved, the necessity and opportunity of the regulation, its objectives, and possible regulatory and non-regulatory alternatives.

The file now advances to the hearing and public information phase regarding the already drafted text, “for the purpose of granting a hearing to the affected citizens and gathering any additional contributions that may be made by other persons or entities,” according to the first agreement of the resolution. The regulation directly affects the fishing and shellfish sector of Cantabria and those operating in natural mollusk beds.

The framework: a mandatory annual order

The regulatory coverage is Decree 178/2003, of October 9, which establishes the shellfish regulation in the Autonomous Community of Cantabria, whose Chapter V, dedicated to exploitation and regulation measures, establishes in its article 20 that the competent Ministry shall regulate the exercise of shellfish harvesting through an annual order. That annual order must establish, at a minimum, the following elements:

• The species authorized for extraction.
• The permitted weights per catch.
• The minimum sizes of the marketed species.
• The areas protected or closed to shellfish harvesting.
• Other circumstances deemed appropriate.

In the previous consultation, the Department explained that the new order will repeal the previous regulations and update its provisions, with the aim of regulating the sustainable exploitation of shellfish resources for commercial purposes and achieving the optimal yield of the activity in natural beds. It also ruled out non-regulatory alternatives, as they are not viable given the mandate of the aforementioned Article 20.

Ten business days and four ways to file objections

The calendar and participation channels are established in the resolution itself:

• The deadline is 10 business days starting from the day following its publication in the BOC.
• Objections must be submitted in writing and addressed to the Directorate General for Fisheries and Food.
• They may be registered in the General Registry or in the registries and places provided for in Article 134.8 of Law 5/2018, of November 22.
• Submission via the Transparency Portal of Cantabria, in the box enabled for this purpose, accessible at http://participacion.cantabria.es, is also permitted.
• The project can be consulted at the offices of the Directorate General, at calle Albert Einstein, nº 2, 39011 Santander, and on the website participacion.cantabria.es.

The resolution is likewise published on the Transparency Portal of Cantabria, so that the file and the contribution form are available to any interested party, not only to sector entities.

The timeline is tight for the activity: the order on closed seasons and minimum sizes conditions the start of the 2027 season, the quotas, and the closed zones; therefore, the shellfish sector and the guilds have barely two weeks to review the text and present objections before the Department finalizes the drafting of the regulation that will govern the entire year.

Source: Official Gazette of Cantabria, no. 214, November 6, 2026, section 7.5 Miscellaneous, pp. 56614-56615 (official reference: CVE-2026-8640).