Shipowners and fishermen from the Pedrouços dock who are contesting the eviction of warehouses in the old fish market may be installed in a fishing port to be built in Paço de Arcos, Oeiras, the Port of Lisbon Administration (APL) said.
“It has been planned to permanently install the fishermen in a fishing port to be built in Paço de Arcos, in the municipality of Oeiras, for which there is already an agreement in principle with this municipality,” said APL, in response to Lusa’s question about whether new facilities are planned.
A group of shipowners and fishermen from the Pedrouços dock, on the border between the municipalities of Lisbon and Oeiras, are against the way APL wants to evict them from the warehouses where they keep their fishing gear, in the old auction, and consider that the alternative containers proposed are not suitable.
Until the construction of the fishing port in Paço de Arcos, APL said that it had “recently invested more than 400,000 euros in a relocation plan, already underway, which proposes a transfer in two phases, for all the fishermen currently in Pedrouços”, and with whom it is “in negotiations to complete its implementation”. The plan was presented “at the beginning of 2024”.
APL explained that in the first phase, to serve until the beginning of 2025, 10 shelters have already been built, with a covered area of 15 square meters (m2) each, at “no cost to the fishermen”, with “a common water point, chemical toilets and waste collection”. The spaces “are ready to accommodate the first nine fishermen who have already agreed to move in”.
“As soon as the other fishermen express their willingness, APL will build and make available 12 more shelters”, within “one or two weeks”, so that “everyone can settle in next to the first 10 shelters”, he said.
The second phase, in the first quarter of 2025, foresees the installation of new 32 m2 shelters with individual water and electricity and waste collection points, on the west pier of Pedrouços dock.
This second stage of the plan “involves the payment of a monthly fee and ensures a temporary shelter for the fishermen who join, until the Oeiras City Council finishes the project to build a fishing port”.
The port activity manager pointed out that “Pedrouços dock is not considered a fishing port and has not been used for fishing purposes since 2003”, when the government decided to close Docapesca so that the space could host the America’s Cup nautical competition, which ended up in Valencia (Spain).
“The number of fishermen present in Pedrouços at that time was less than 10 and they had no alternatives in the Cascais Fish Market or the Ribeira Market [and] they were then left without a safe haven,” APL pointed out, adding that the fishermen occupied spaces in the old fish market without their “initial opposition” and that when they resumed contacts in 2019 and 2023 to vacate the spaces, “there were already more than 20”.
The entity assured that it has presented “better conditions than the current ones for the fishermen’s shelters”, within the framework of the “Ocean Campus”, a project of “relevant public interest for the port, the city of Lisbon and the country”, but “there has been systematic opposition from a group of fishermen”.
In the spaces occupied by the fishermen “there is no electricity connection, no water connection, no proper waste collection, and nothing is charged for this occupation”. “Alternatives such as Santos, Trafaria, Cova do Vapor and Paço de Arcos were considered, but always without reaching an agreement,” he added.
The two pavilions of the old fish market are included in the “Ocean Campus” project, to be developed between Pedrouços and Dafundo (Oeiras), which “will focus on environmentally sustainable and soft mobility solutions”. Their vacancy “is necessary for the completion of the works already planned”.
One pavilion was concessioned in 2019 to the Champalimaud Foundation for the installation of an artificial intelligence center and another, in 2023, was contracted with the Lisbon City Council for the installation of the Hub do Mar and Shared Ocean Lab, which provides funding of 31 million euros from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and 26 million for the rental of the space.
The lawyer for a group of 13 shipowners and fishermen, Sandra Aires, reiterated that they had never been presented with “a concrete proposal” by APL regarding the definitive facilities, and that the 15 m2 area of the metal containers is “manifestly insufficient given the needs”.
In a letter sent to APL, they also explained that the temperature inside the containers (up to 60 degrees in summer) “would damage the fishing gear”, the windows compromise security and encourage vandalism, and the size of the door is too narrow for the passage of gear and equipment.
As a result, they refuse to move into the containers and the lawyer said that those who have accepted “are people who don’t have to be displaced” and that, therefore, “between having nothing and having a container, they prefer to have a container”.
