Last Wednesday, the Tías City Council presented allegations to the Government of the Canary Islands against the installation of marine cages on the coast of Lanzarote, requesting the radical nullity of the Resolution of the General Directorate of Fisheries by which the Yaizatún entity was selected, since the powers in this matter belong to the Island Council of Lanzarote and not to the regional Executive.
The allegations presented recall the legal precepts that attribute to the Island Councils "the powers in matters of aquaculture and marine crops, and in particular, both for the issuance of the compatibility report with the Regional Plan for the Management of Aquaculture in the Canary Islands of the application for the granting of an aquaculture concession, as well as for the entire process of preparation, processing and approval of the bases of a public tender for the granting of an aquaculture concession".
Regarding the project submitted to public information, which includes the installation of marine cages with 56 nurseries to cultivate 9,000 tons per year of Atlantic tuna, sea bass and sea bream off the coasts of the municipalities of Tías, San Bartolomé, Arrecife and Teguise, the City Council proposes the nullity by law of the Resolution of the General Directorate of Fisheries, by which the bases that must govern the public tender for the granting of an aquaculture concession in the marine area of the ZIA-LZ-2 are approved.
"All actions that are intended to be developed from the approval of said bases and in particular the call and resolution of an eventual public tender for the granting of an aquaculture concession, must also be questioned, as they are contaminated by the same cause of nullity by law as they have been promoted, processed and resolved by a manifestly incompetent body, since the General Directorate of Fisheries lacks competence to do so, such actions corresponding to the Island Council of Lanzarote".
The representatives of the Consistory regret that "the island proposal for the management of aquaculture has not been taken into consideration", in which the Puerto del Carmen area was expressly included among the areas discarded for the implementation of marine cages.
In addition, they criticize "the change and advancement" of the programming of the development of the Regional Plan for the Management of Aquaculture of the Canary Islands (PROAC), promoted by a private commercial entity, as it appears from the letter of appearance in the contentious-administrative appeal of the commercial entity Yaizatún. "The particular and private interest cannot prevail over the public interests that have not even had the opportunity to express themselves on the matter," the allegations state.
These allegations also emphasize the "gaps and deficiencies" of the Detailed Management document of the ZIA-LZ-2, in relation to the characterization of the physical, oceanographic conditions of the biological environment, of the territorial-socioeconomic situation and with the interference of aquaculture activity with traditional fishing activities and tourist activities.
The installation of marine cages in Lanzarote regulated in the PROAC affects a "great diversity of species" essential for ecological processes, among which marine communities such as the meadows of Cymodocea nodosa or the presence of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) stand out, in addition to all the organisms present in the Special Conservation Zone (ZEC) Sebadales de Guasimeta and Site of Community Importance (LIC), the marine area of the east and south of Lanzarote-Fuerteventura, among other protected spaces.
