The Civil Guard of the Maritime Detachment of Fuerteventura, in coordination with the Island Directorate of General State Administration in Lanzarote, the Biosphere Reserve Area of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, and the Pastinaca Underwater Activities Club, have removed, one and a half miles from the Port of La Tiñosa in the town of Puerto del Carmen, a trammel net of about 15 meters in length that did not comply with the regulations and that housed several specimens of angel sharks inside.
The intervention was carried out during the afternoon of March 31 as a result of the request for collaboration from the Island Delegation of Lanzarote, in which the discovery of an illegal fishing gear that did not comply with the regulations was communicated.
Therefore, and based on the principle of institutional collaboration, the members of the Maritime Detachment of the Civil Guard aboard the Canal Bocayna patrol boat, coordinated with a group of divers from Lanzarote led by the President
of the C.A.S. Pastinaca, were able to mark and subsequently hoist a large trammel net and a 5-meter trap that were submerged at a depth of about 25 meters and also did not comply with current regulations.
The trammel net is a gillnet whose use is totally prohibited throughout the year, both in inland and external waters of the province of Las Palmas.
Regular divers in the area, in previous dives, verified that in the trammel net there were several angel sharks trapped, being able to save the lives of two since the rest were in an advanced state of decomposition, likewise, all the species trapped in the illegal trap could be returned to the sea alive.
Both recovered gears were transferred to the Port of Corralejo, where they will remain in deposit as ownership and origin cannot be accredited at the moment, and the samples obtained from the remains of angel sharks will be sent to the laboratory
for their corresponding biological studies and the devices extracted from the seabed will be destroyed.
It should be noted that the Ministry for Ecological Transition included in 2009 the Canary population of angel sharks, also known as angel sharks or by their scientific name, Squatina squatina, in the Spanish Catalog of Threatened Species. Previously, it could be found throughout the Atlantic coast of Europe and Africa, including the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, but now it only survives in the waters of the archipelago, so the Canary Islands is "the last bastion where you can see them regularly."
This action has been carried out thanks to the rapid coordination and collaboration of different institutions such as the Island Delegation in Lanzarote, the Biosphere Reserve area of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, and all those who actively participated to carry out the joint collaboration between the members of the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard and the local divers concerned about preserving the marine ecosystem and the fishing sector.