The Yaiza City Council has sent a letter to the Government of the Canary Islands, accompanied by documentation and the history of studies commissioned by the municipality on the environmental impact of aquaculture in Playa Quemada, asking the General Directorate of Fisheries to exercise strict control over the company responsible for the marine cages, so that it carries out actions aimed at cleaning and recovering the seabed affected by the accumulation of sediments from said activity. The mayor, Óscar Noda, recalls that "the 20-year concession ends on August 2," so he considers that Fisheries "must check not only the removal of the cages, but also the cleanliness of the seabed and the state of the environment before resolving the exploitation contract.”
Yaiza also questions that the current activity, the cultivation of sea bass and sea bream, differs from the one initially approved for fattening tuna and that, since its authorization has not been submitted to an environmental assessment procedure, it is necessary to carry out the necessary checks to determine the real effects that the activity has generated on the environment.
Apart from confirming the end date of the concession and removal of the installation, Yaiza requests information from Fisheries on the degree of compliance with the Environmental Surveillance Program, seabed cleaning actions near Playa Quemada, and a copy of the reports regarding the hydrodynamic conditions of the area where the aquaculture facility is currently located.
"The letter and documentation were sent to the General Directorate of Fisheries as the Substantive Body, although we also sent an identical copy to the General Directorate for the Fight against Climate Change and the Environment, which responds that Fisheries is the competent body to intervene," Noda detailed.
The mayor of Yaiza has also appreciated "the interest in this and other municipal concerns of the regional parliamentarian of Coalición Canaria, Jesús Machín Tavío, who has asked us for documentation and was with us in Playa Quemada together with the first deputy mayor Ángel Domínguez and the Councilor for the Environment, Águeda Cedrés.”
The City Council also emphasizes that "although Yaiza on paper is not one of the municipalities affected by the recent ordinance of the same Government of the Canary Islands on the Aquaculture Interest Zone ZIA LZ2, which allows the installation of new marine cages on the coast of Arrecife, San Bartolomé and Tías, the City Council has been interested in collaborating with these municipalities and with the fishermen's associations of Lanzarote in solidarity to prevent the repetition of experiences that leave environmental damage and little economic productivity in the location that hosts the exploitation." To this end, he explains that he made all the documentation available and delivered it to those interested in order to undertake the appropriate administrative or legal actions.
Already in 2014, the City Council presented allegations to the Provisional Approval of the Regional Aquaculture Planning Plan (PROAC), with which it sent a technical report on the negative environmental impacts of aquaculture.
