The Regional Director for Fisheries stated in Horta that "all the conditions are in place" to activate FUNDOPESCA on all islands of the archipelago, adding that fishers will "receive an amount equivalent to 50% of the minimum monthly wage" in force in the region, as stipulated by law.
 
Luís Rodrigues spoke at the end of a meeting of the Administration Board of FUNDOPESCA. He stressed that "the criteria put to voting by the members of the board were approved unanimously." The amount of support to be allocated to fishers due to income loss has been set at 292.43 Euros.
 
The Regional Director noted that there has been an income drop of 35% on at least 15 days in a 30-day period when compared with the daily arithmetic average in the same period of time over the last three years; for that reason, it was decided to activate this salary compensation fund for fishers.
 
Luis Rodrigues added that the measure covers all professional fishers who have made payments to this salary compensation fund as well as to the Social Security in period December 1, 2015 and November 30, 2016.
 
Applications should be submitted to the Regional Directorate for Fisheries until February 28.
 
The legal document regulating FUNDOPESCA was amended in January 2016, reducing the time between the loss of income and the effective payment of the salary compensation.
 
Approved unanimously by the Legislative Assembly, the new regulation will also combat fraud by requiring the presentation of a valid insurance policy in certain months of the year.