The Civil Guard reported on May 12 two men, aged 44 and 42, for fishing in a professional fishing boat near Lanzarote using trammel nets, specifically with a "cazonal".
Both sailors are repeat offenders and had been reported on other occasions for illegal fishing. The agents on board the Bocayna patrol boat inspected the boat after learning that they were fishing with gillnets.
The Civil Guard points out that the surveillance of the territorial sea and citizen collaboration was essential to locate the use of trammel nets on the coast of Lanzarote. In fact, it was following a complaint filed by a citizen when it became known that fishing was being carried out with gillnets, which is illegal in Lanzarote.
The reported vessel used the cazonal method, being a rectangular gillnet consisting of a single panel stretched between two lifelines, which is set fixed and vertical on the bottom. In the cazonal, the panel will have a mesh size of 82 millimeters, with a length of 50 meters, without the total length of the gear exceeding 350 meters. The minimum depth to set both the trammel net and the cazonal is set at 30 meters.
In addition, commercial specimens of the surrounding marine fauna such as old, sargos, chopas, cabrillas as well as other species such as the chucho or stingray were meshed in the gear, capturing the crew of the vessel with this gear a total weight of 163.90 kilograms, all specimens captured being delivered to charity.
According to the Benemérita, regardless of the prohibition on gillnets on the island of Lanzarote, it should be noted that in those areas of the archipelago where the use of the "cazonal" is allowed, there must be a minimum depth of 30 meters and its maximum length will be 350 meters, the gear seized on this occasion was set at a depth of about 15 m. and was about 600 meters long, failing to comply with the Regulation that develops it.
In Law 17/2003, of April 10, on Fisheries of the Canary Islands, the use or possession on board of prohibited, unauthorized or irregular gear or implements is a serious infraction included in article 70.5. In turn, article 76.b) states that serious infractions will be sanctioned with a fine of 301 to 60,000 euros.
Danger to marine fauna
In addition to the unselective fishing of gillnets, their presence in our waters leads, due to different circumstances (storms, currents, etc.), to their not being able to be collected, being abandoned in the sea.
These gears are known as "ghost nets" as they continue to make indiscriminate catches that end up dying in the sea, they are the most lethal plastic waste for marine species, with a high percentage of aquatic mammals, birds and sea turtles trapped and suffering injuries or death as a result of being entangled.
In addition, it must be taken into account that the degradation period of these ghost nets can be hundreds of years, and that the draft of the aforementioned cazonal is of much rock, giving rise to a high probability that the gillnets will get caught on the bottom, not being able to be recovered in part or in its entirety. The nets not only mutilate and kill fish, birds and other fauna, they can also damage marine habitats.
