The Canarian environmental organization ADACIS has filed a new complaint against poachers caught by the Civil Guard while fishing with a rifle in the Isla Graciosa and Northern Islets Marine Reserve. Specifically, it has denounced the two poachers who were caught by the Civil Guard on May 31 while practicing illegal marine fishing.
Specifically, the investigated used a fishing rifle, prohibited in this protected area, and had captured 41 kilograms of fish, when legal recreational fishing only allows up to five kilos per person. In addition, they lacked a license.
The complaint filed is the third that ADACIS promotes for resolution in the courts of Arrecife against poaching activities on the island, one of which culminated in a convicting sentence and another is in progress after a year and a half of procedure.
The conservation association has expressed its "utmost recognition" to the professional activity of surveillance and interventions of the Civil Guard to guarantee both compliance with current legislation and the conservation of marine and coastal natural values in the Canary Islands. Their exemplary work "constitutes a decisive factor to avoid and reduce the plundering of natural resources by poachers, negatively affecting the professional fishing sector, the marine biodiversity of the islands and, therefore, the general interest".
On this occasion, the ADACIS complaint focuses in the first instance against people who illegally fished with a rifle in the surroundings of the Montaña Clara and Roque del Oeste Islets, areas of high ecological value in which this activity is expressly prohibited.
Thus, they have recalled in a statement that the coasts and the marine environment of the Canary Islands "have experienced intense degradation processes for decades, essentially caused by massive and permanent marine pollution derived from discharges of untreated water, by urban pressure and the construction of infrastructure on the coast, by the use of coastal areas by multiple users and economic activities, and by overfishing".
In addition to these factors, they have pointed out that the impacts of global warming on the marine environment rapidly alter the biological and physical dynamics of the ocean, both due to the rise in water temperature and the appearance of invasive species or the acidification of water by absorption of CO2.
Scientific studies from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria reveal that fishing productivity has been reduced by up to 90% in the last 50 years in Gran Canaria, with similar indications in the rest of the islands. In this scenario of global vulnerability and negative effects on the oceanic life of the Canary Islands, poaching must be persecuted and denounced with the utmost force due to the harmful effects it exerts on marine and coastal life and because they significantly limit, due to their clandestine nature, the capacity of administrations to implement a correct evaluation of the state of ecosystems and species and the impact of economic activities associated with these.
In this context, ADACIS has requested the competent authorities "a firm and decisive impulse to reinforce effective surveillance in marine and coastal areas" of the Canary Islands, particularly in protected areas, and promote "a more intense educational work that allows the population to know the current regulations, the critical areas, and the protected and endangered species".
In addition, they have indicated that "it is a priority to establish an update of the minimum sizes for all species of fishing interest, and urgently increase efforts to achieve the European objective of protecting 30% of the marine space of the Canarian demarcation in 2030".
ADACIS has stressed that "fishing activity cannot and should never be carried out through practices that destroy or degrade Canarian nature, and must be carried out at all times properly controlled and registered".
In this sense, they have recalled that while professional and recreational fishermen are obliged to comply with the rules respecting sizes, species and periods and areas authorized for extractive activity, poachers steal fish for profit, violating legal precepts and attacking a natural heritage that belongs to the entire Canarian population.
ADACIS has announced that it will extend in the courts of justice the demand for responsibilities from poachers, but also to people and establishments that buy illegal catches from poaching or recreational fishing".
