With fish stocks collapsing in Europe, Spain's fleet is now "plundering waters as far away as Antarctica and Africa using European taxpayers' money", according to Greenpeace.
One Greenpeace report said that Spain had a fleet twice the UK's and three times Italy's, the next biggest fishing nations. Spain's largest fishing ships can haul in 3,000 tonnes of tuna per trip, double the annual catch of some Pacific nations.
Despite a collapse of European fish stocks and decades of promises to reduce capacity, Spain's industrial fishing has actually grown.
"If Europe wants fish tomorrow, Spain must stop overfishing today," said Greenpeace oceans campaigner Farah Obaidullah who joined a protest on May 2 in which Greenpeace campaigners hung banners from La Coruna's iconic Tower of Hercules reading "EU: Save Our Oceans".
The meeting in Vigo on May 3 was seen as the first step in reforming the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The EC has already called for a reduction in fishing capacity.
Greenpeace called for the reformed CFP to include substantial fleet reduction targets, expansion of protected marine reserves and a focus on science and transparency.
