The concession for the marine cages located off Playa Quemada expired last August, but the company is resisting leaving the activity, which has been questioned for years due to the pollution generated in the area. However, the general director of Fisheries of the Canary Islands Government, Carmelo Dorta, maintains that “the impact on the seabed is minimal”.
“Environmental controls are carried out very strictly every year”, Dorta pointed out in statements to La Voz, assuring that these controls also reflect that “there is no impact of this activity on the surrounding beaches”. In this regard, he does not deny the pollution that has been generated on the beach, but points to “several poorly managed coastal submarine emissaries as possible responsible for these effects”.
Regarding the fact that these aquaculture cages continue in the area despite the concession having already expired, the General Director of Fisheries has explained that the company requested a new extension, which has already been denied by both the Ministry and the Department, given that this area is outside the Regional Aquaculture Planning Plan of the Canary Islands (PROAC).
However, the company has filed an appeal with the Vice-Ministry of the Primary Sector of the Canary Islands Government. “Until it is resolved, the company may continue with its fishing activity”, Dorta specifies. Thus, he clarifies that “the company cannot sow a new crop", but it can collect "the existing one”.
Cleaning the seabed is not guaranteed
Shortly before the permit expired, the Yaiza City Council had already begun to demand not only the removal of the cages when the concession expired, but also that the company be required to execute a project to recover the area. However, it is not clear that this will be done either.
“The cleaning of the seabed can be demanded if an evaluation of it advises it at the moment the removal of the cages becomes final”, specifies the general director of Fisheries. In addition, he warns that this withdrawal could also be delayed because “current regulations require that once the cages have been removed from that area, a procedure be initiated to grant another aquaculture area included in the PROAC regulations”.
That ordinance has already been approved and Dorta emphasizes that it was done “in the previous legislature at the proposal of the Cabildo of Lanzarote”, but now it has raised strong rejection, since it foresees the installation of marine cages along the coast between Arrecife and Puerto del Carmen.
“Unfortunately, the Yaiza City Council has just filed an administrative appeal to the Detailed Ordinance of the ZIA LZ-2 and this, in principle, could delay the transfer of the cages to a convenient ordered area, with much more advisable environmental parameters than the current area granted on August 2, 2001”, points out the general director of Fisheries.
However, it is not only Yaiza who has raised his voice against this new ordinance, but also the municipalities involved and the Cabildo of Lanzarote itself, which last May approved an institutional declaration to try to prevent the proliferation of marine cages off the coasts of Arrecife, San Bartolomé and Tías, calling it an “atrocity”.
