Ecologistas en Acción has expressed its opposition to the project of farming gilthead seabream, sea bass and Atlantic bluefin tuna in cages, which the company Yaizatún intends to install between La Bufona in Arrecife and Playa del Barranquillo in Tías. The environmental group has requested that the authorization be denied to the responsible bodies and that the file be closed.
Thus, the group has pointed out that this initiative is "negative for the marine environment, given its impact on habitats and threatened species" and that, in addition, it "ignores" international and European Union regulations.
Ecologistas en Acción has described as "a complete environmental, social and economic absurdity" the project that Yazaitún intends to carry out on the central-eastern coast of Lanzarote, to annually raise 9,000 tons of tuna, 3,300 of sea bass and 1,700 of gilthead seabream.
Damage to the ecosystem
To comply with these claims, the company should install 56 cages between 30 and 50 meters in diameter, at an average depth of 42 meters, which according to the environmental group would mean "ruining the quality of marine waters, essential for the health of plant and animal life, for people and for the economic activities that take place in the area, fishing, sports, and for the health of bathers", since this coast is the most frequented for leisure, an activity that supports the main island economy.
The group, which asks for the rejection of the project and the definitive paralysis of the file, does not understand how a business initiative that attacks an area that has the category of "Interest for the Canary Island Ecosystems", which is included in the Spanish Catalog of Threatened Species with the classification of "vulnerable", and in the Habitats Directive, with parts belonging to the network of Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) of the Canary Islands (Natura 2000 Network), can be considered.
In addition, they have pointed out that the location of the fattening cages planned by the company Yaizatún "infringes the minimum safety distance and is established on the potential habitat of Guasimeta Sebadales (Special Area of Conservation since 2010), where any harmful activity is prohibited". In this regard, Ecologistas en Acción, emphasizes that "keeping the waters and seabed healthy is the only way for the seagrass meadows (sebadales) to live, which are already very decimated".
Effect on the landscape
To these arguments, the environmental group has added the impact of the project on the marine landscape, given the proximity to which the cages would be (between 2.5 and 4.0 kilometers) from densely populated areas such as Costa Teguise, Arrecife, Playa Honda or Puerto del Carmen.
And they have recalled that, as a Biosphere Reserve, "actions that involve alterations of the landscape quality and generate risks for the leisure use of the coastline must be annulled", in this case, they point out, due to contamination or frequency of dangerous wild marine fauna for citizens and for local species.
Among the "many inconveniences that the Yaizatún project would entail for the area", Ecologistas en Acción, has insisted on pointing out that "aquaculture in fattening cages alters the marine environment and affects the seagrass meadows due to the increase in nutrients that enhance the growth and reproduction of fast-growing opportunistic species, affects the reduction of light and alters the amounts of nitrates and phosphates, because the prevailing winds disperse the organic material discharged for fattening".
Ecologistas en Acción has stressed that it is "especially dangerous" for the balance of the ecosystem is the cultivation of tuna that is fattened with live bait (15 kilos of sardine, horse mackerel or mackerel are used, unprocessed, for a bluefin tuna in captivity to gain one kilo of weight). And, as has already happened in other islands of the archipelago, they recall that there is a "high possibility of escapes from the cages, especially of sea bass, which feeds on native fish, decimating the population".
Likewise, they have insisted that the feed and live bait attract free-ranging fish such as rays and sharks, whose survival is endangered by coming into contact with the cages. Ecologistas en Acción has pointed, in particular, to some species that are included in international protection catalogs and in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), such as the angelshark or angel shark, which appears in the Spanish Catalog of Threatened Species as an endangered species. The environmental group points out that the coastline of Tías and San Bartolomé are essential places for the survival of this marine species.
