“This regulation follows the principles defined for shared and responsible management of resources with the aim of maintaining the resource at sustainable exploitation levels through the regulation of harvesting, monitoring and promotion of knowledge and compliance and the valorisation of catches”, states the ordinance signed by the Secretary of State for Fisheries.

The management measures defined in the regulation impose a limit of 40 licensed collectors, a daily catch limit per collector of no more than 20 kilos and an activity limit of up to a maximum of three collection days per week, with Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays being permitted.

The collection of barnacles is also prohibited for a minimum of five months of the year, between January and March and August and September, and in at least 30% of the total areas where the species occurs at a commercially exploitable density.

The barnacles caught cannot be smaller than 20 millimeters in at least half of the catch and shellfish gatherers are also required to unload them in a place designated by the fisheries co-management committee within Docapesca, in the Port of Peniche.

The measures can always be changed depending on the state of the resource by the co-management committee, an entity created in 2021 by the Government to manage and monitor the sustainable collection of goose barnacles within the Berlengas Nature Reserve, off the coast of Peniche, in the district of Leiria.