The Voraceus Bream (Pagellus bogaraveo) or Pinta Bream is one of the specimens caught by the bogue trawlers from Tarifa fishing in the Strait of Gibraltar. Along with bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), they are the most highly valued species marketed by the Tarifa fishery in the province of Cadiz.
The Voraz is a member of the same family as the common bream, the sparidae, although it has a lower fat content and is distinguished by the larger size of its eyeball due to the fact that it normally lives at greater depths.
The Voracious is the fishing gear that defines the most appropriate method for better fishing by minimising the catch of discards, reducing the catch of non-target species of commercial interest and directing the fishing effort to the most interesting sizes.
From the The aim of the Tarifa fish market is to orient fishing techniques towards responsible fishing, where the objective is to fish better in an effective and efficient way, which will allow an adequate management and conservation of the exploited resource, transforming it into a sustainable one and within the of the 2030 Agenda and in particular with the goal of Vida Submarina
This is a fundamental consideration for species whose fishing grounds are overexploited, as is the case for most of the fishing grounds on our country’s continental shelf.
The Vorax (Pagellus bogaraveo) is a teleost fish of the family Sparidae that inhabits littoral waters on rocky, sandy and muddy bottoms. It is found down to 400 m depth in the Mediterranean and 700 m in the Atlantic. Its diet is omnivorous, although with carnivorous preferences, and is based mainly on pelagic invertebrates (mainly crustaceans), as well as fish eggs, larvae and juveniles. They show a vertical distribution of space according to age, and therefore size. Young fish can be found close to the coast, while adults occupy the outer part of the continental shelf.
This distribution is accompanied by migratory breeding behaviour, which is characteristic of many coastal fishes. The reproductive period is long and depends on the geographical situation. In the area of the Strait of Gibraltar, it occupies the months January to May. They are generally proteroandrous hermaphrodites, becoming females at around 4-5 years of age, when they reach a length of 30-32 cm.
The first reproduction makes them very sensitive to overexploitation of the stock, as one of the effects of these processes is the decrease in catch sizes, which can lead to significant alterations in sex ratios and therefore recruitment can be affected.
Bream is a species of great interest and great economic importance in the Strait of Gibraltar, since the artisanal nature of this form of fishing, with the socio-economic characteristics that this implies, must be combined with the high value that it can reach in the fish market. Traditionally, the Pinta Bream sea bream is considered a species of high gastronomic value.
The Voraz or Besugo de la Pinta fishery began in the area of Tarifa in the 1980s, and previously the exploitation of this fishery was reduced to a few boats of the Ceuta fleet.
There is a specific regulation of Spanish Government Order 15/07/08 (BOE of 2 July 1998) with a specific fishing plan for Voraz fishing called “voracera” which details all the technical characteristics, the minimum size established for the gill net and the scope of application, as well as the list of all vessels authorised to fish for gill net.
The area of application comprises the outer waters between Punta Camarinal (5º 47′ 950 W) and Punta Europa (5º 20′ 700 W), both on the coast of the province of Cadiz.
The fishing gear used is a bottom longline called voracera, which is a hook rig made up of a main line or main line, from which hang at regular intervals, other shorter lines or branch lines, which are fitted with hooks.
The lower end of the gear has a ballast attached to the main line by a very fine line, the purpose of which is to break when the rig is hoisted, leaving the ballast on the bottom and the rig fully extended over it.
The maximum length of each bag shall not exceed 120 metres, with a maximum of 100 hooks per bag. The size of the hook, which shall be eye hook (without barb), shall be no larger than 3,55 cm and no wider than 1,30 cm.
The minimum size established for the legal catch of Voraz fish is 25 cm.
It only allows the use of 30 voraceras per ship. Likewise, for lifting gear, each vessel may not carry more than 3 hydraulic haulers.
The voracera, the gear used mainly by most of the boats from Tarifa and some from Algeciras, Puente Mayorga, Palmones and Ceuta to catch the voraz. It is a longline made up of a 2,000 metre long nylon monofilament line, 1.80 mm in diameter, with a loop with a carabiner or pin at the end, to which is attached the voracera and a 500 g lead.
Due to the long length of the main line, it is operated with a hydraulic or manual reel.
The stem of the vortex is made of the same material as the canvas, has a length of 50 fathoms and a diameter of 1.3 mm. It is rigged with up to 90 nylon monofilament lines of 0.60 mm diameter and 1 metre in length, spaced 1.10 metres apart, with number 10 round hooks with eyebolts at the ends.
The end of the stem is finished off with a gala where a 15 kg stone is hooked, clutched with a falseta, which is in charge of carrying the complete piece of gear to the bottom. The phalseta can be made up of two, three or four strands, depending on the strength of the tide.
Once the gear is at the bottom, supported at its ends by the stone and the plumb line, the mother canvas and the voracera are charged, pulling in turn the falseta. The moment when the falseta breaks, it is used as an opportunity to cast more mother line, in order to bring the sinker to the bottom. This allows the vortex to be parallel to the ground and fully extended.
With this gear, fishing is carried out during the day with the ebb tide, from low tide to high tide, on bottoms no larger than 500 fathoms, with several casts being made. The bait used is squid or sardines.
As mentioned above, the culinary value of the Voraz is highly appreciated in the traditional cuisine of the Cadiz coast and it is normally offered in the restaurants along the coast in three different ways: grilled, fried in oil or salted. In these three ways, we can fully appreciate the exquisite taste of this fish, which is very much determined by the diet it obtains from the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Realizado por Fernando Toro Sánchez, Doctor en Turismo, sobre el trabajo de Cabrera Castro, R. (2002). La selectividad del arte de pesca del voraz de Tarifa (Pagellus bogaraveo) del Estrecho de Gibraltar.
