The impact of aquaculture on the Guasimeta seagrass meadows is the main allegation of the Cabildo of Lanzarote to the project 'Cultivation of gilthead seabream, sea bass and Atlantic tuna', promoted by the company Yaizatún in the marine strip between the point of La Bufona and the beach of Barranquillo, in the municipal terms of Arrecife, San Bartolomé and Tías.
The different reports provided by the departments of the Biosphere Reserve, Environment, Fisheries, Geopark, Territorial Policy and Legal Advice, together with the environmental assessment commissioned to an external company, coincide in highlighting that the implementation of aquaculture would pose a "risk" to the SCI 'Guasimeta Seagrass Meadows', which are in a "regressive state", and its "null recovery", an effect that has already occurred in Playa Quemada.
In its letter of allegations to the General Directorate of Ecological Transition, the Cabildo of Lanzarote maintains that the "documentation of the fish fattening cage project undervalues the contributions of organic matter and the impacts generated in the marine ecosystem by the feed used in the aquaculture activity", which aims to be implemented in a "highly sensitive" area, ignoring the real potential effect it would have on the communities of phanerogams.
The regulations of the 'Regional Program for the Management of Aquaculture in the Canary Islands' (PROAC) establish that for the installation of farms within the limits of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC), a Site of Community Importance (SCI) or a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) "a prior favorable report from the management body of said protected areas will be necessary", a document absent from the processing of the Yaizatún project. And the same legislation dictates that "all those areas with bionomic funds of the type of marine phanerogam meadows or seagrass meadows will be collected as prohibited".
In 2011, a total of 324.36 hectares of Cymodocea nodosa were registered within the SCI 'Guacimeta Seagrass Meadows', of which 140.5 hectares would be occupied by 56 of the nurseries included in the aquaculture project, which means the occupation of almost half of the total area of a species classified as "vulnerable" within the Spanish Catalog of Threatened Species.
The debate is not new. During the session of the Council of the Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote held on April 11, 2023, the unanimous agreement of its members was taken to reject the implementation of marine cages in accordance with the PROAC. The location of the cages, the main object of controversy, is also answered by "not adequately motivating or justifying" possible alternatives. It is also argued that "there is no adequate description of the facilities or of the marine and port activities".
The Yaizatún initiative is in the technical moment prior to the pronouncement on whether the proposal for economic activity should be submitted or not to the environmental impact assessment procedure. According to the Law, said pronouncement must take into account both the technical analysis of the documentation presented, as well as the result of the consultation phase with the competent and affected public administrations, as well as interested parties.
