"The trap is a passive fishing gear because the will to enter the trap resides in the fish; furthermore, the net catches only a percentage of the species and not all. It allows the return of immature live fish to the sea and does not interfere with protected species because it does not interact with them; these characteristics allow a margin of maneuver impossible to carry out with any other fishing gear." This is the definition offered by Juan Jesús Rodríguez, vice-skipper and shipowner of the Fishermen's Association of Playa Blanca.
This fishing gear, consisting of degradable metal cages where the fish are trapped, is prohibited in a large part of the Canary Island fishing grounds and in recent weeks has come to the fore for two reasons. On the one hand, the fishermen of the Association presented a [scientific technical report to the Vice-Ministry of the Government of the Canary Islands->http://version2.lavozdelanzarote.com/article24916.html] to "adopt corrective measures in the traps so that they can be used legally and responsibly."
And on the other hand, because the [Civil Guard seized six traps that were illegally installed->http://www.lavozdelanzarote.com/article.php3?id_article=28577] in La Bocaina, a place where you cannot fish with this gear. The disagreement over the gear to be used for fishing activity between the Majoreros and the rabbit farmers of the South comes from behind. From the Playa Blanca Association, Rodríguez states that the southern fishermen "understand and respect that those from Fuerteventura do not want to use traps" and even support "that they delimit their space as they consider".
70 percent of the fish is caught with traps in Playa Blanca
According to the study carried out by the Canary Islands Institute of Marine Sciences, at the request of the southern association, it has been verified that in the first sale point more than 70 percent of the GDP of this association comes from the trap. That is, the income of the thirty families who work in the 17 vessels of the association depends mostly on the use of traps.
Although Rodríguez declares that "officially you cannot throw traps because that is how it is registered in decree 182", he recognizes that most of the fish that arrives in the South comes from these metal nets. Depending on the season, thanks to this art, red mullet, sea bream or horse mackerel arrive at the first point of sale.
Scientific-technical report to adopt corrective measures
The Playa Blanca Association has prepared a scientific-technical report, which has been presented to the Vice-Ministry of the Canary Islands, to adopt "the pertinent corrective measures regarding the traps". With this study, according to Rodríguez, the fishermen intend to know "how much fish there is in the Bocaina Channel and how much fish can be taken out".
What the professionals want is to "take measures to know how many resources are available and how much can be exploited, because what cannot be done is to prohibit any fishing gear without knowing a priori the positive or negative effects that could derive from them", the fishermen estimate. But for the moment there is no change in the legislation in this regard because there has not yet been a response from the institutions and therefore it is still unknown whether the art of traps will be legalized or not.
