The SINAVAL/ EUROFISHING 2009 shipping, maritime, port and fishing fair took place at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre on April 21-24. The event was opened by José Ángel Corres, Chairman of the Bilbao Port Authority, and by its closure on Friday it had drawn a total of 5712 visitors.

Those visitors came from almost all Spain's regional autonomous communities and from 36 other countries all over the world. The international profile of SINAVAL /EUROFISHING is evidenced by the participation of many foreign trade specialists, with the United Kingdom, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Ireland and the USA being the countries from which most visitors came.

The sectors which most attracted the interest of visitors were vessel outfitting, shipyards, vessel engineering and design, repairers, construction and the ancillary industry and fishing tackle.

Side events played a major role in the fair, as they were both more numerous and of a higher standard than in previous years. The 25 events staged over the four days of the fair were attended by more than 775 trade specialists.

Thus, SINAVAL/ EUROFISHING 2009 was a major meeting point for the shipping, maritime, ports and fisheries sectors which also provided numerous opportunities to analyse and discuss matters of current importance and share experiences.

In terms of topics, their importance, the standard of speakers and number of attendees, the most significant activities were the lecture "Offshore Support Vessels: More and More Complex and Efficient" which looked at new market trends and requirements which our shipyards and ancillary industry need to meet, and the Annual Conference and Governing Board Meeting of CIRM (Comité International Radio-Maritime), the world's most prestigious event in the field of naval electronics, which was opened by Esteban Pachá, General Manager of IMSO (International Mobile Satellite Organisation). This conference made it clear that progress is being made towards more and more automatic, electronic navigation.

Celebrations to mark the centenary of the La Naval shipyard in Sestao, owned by the CNN Group, included a talk attended by over 120 people on the history of the shipyard. The yard's manager, Iñaki Irasuegui, also announced that La Naval will make a profit this year, with invoicing of around 200 million €, and that negotiations are under way for around half a dozen contracts which would assure a workload for the yard up to 2011. This event was also attended by Arantza Quiroga, Speaker of the Basque Parliament, and by Ana Agirre, Basque Government Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism.

Other events included presentations of historical memoirs of Basque fishermen and a modular hold for smart fishing vessels.

Future Port, an international meeting of the ports industry, was another high-profile international element of the fair, which covered the topics "More Productive Port Logistics" and "Towards More Sustainable Ports".

The General Assembly of the Spanish Maritime Cluster was also held. It included a proposal for measures to mitigate the effects of the recession on the maritime sector, including shipping, shipbuilding, engineering, ancillary industry, fishing and aquaculture, transport and logistics companies, port activities, oceanographic research, energy, environment and a wide range of services which between them generate added value in excess of 26 billion €.

In the context of the fisheries industry, Sinaval /Eurofishing also hosted the General Assembly and Governing Board meeting of FEICOPESCA (Spanish Federation of Associations of Fisheries and Aquaculture Product Processors and Marketers), a Governing Board meeting of and seminar by CEPESCA (Spanish Fisheries Confederation) and an important meeting between representatives of the Spanish and French fleets to discuss future management of anchovy fishing, at which various positions were expressed concerning the size of catches permitted if scientific studies determine that the ban on fishing can be lifted.

The Basque Maritime Forum also organised a presentation on for intelligent fishing vessels, focused on speeding up the classification of catches on board, so that fish can be auctioned from the vessel itself, and the optimisation of space so that fish can be monitored from their capture to the counter in the fish market. This would entail financial advantages and enable quality to be guaranteed, which purchasers would greatly appreciate.

A seminar on energy efficiency in fishing vessels was organised by Azti-Tecnalia with the collaboration of the Basque Government and the European Fisheries Fund.

The fair also hosted the 4th International Shipping Meetings, a brokerage event organised by the Basque Maritime Forum and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, whose Councillor for Innovation and Economic Promotion, Izaskun Artetxe, attended. This brokerage event featured meetings between trade visitors and exhibitors intended to promote joint action, business to business co-operation and technology transfers.

The SINAVAL/ EUROFISHING 2009 shipping, maritime, port and fishing fair featured a total of 330 exhibiting firms from 23 countries.