The Yaiza City Council has presented technical allegations to reject the new marine cages in Lanzarote. The mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, recalls that "although this December 20 is the deadline for the presentation of allegations to the project of installation of marine cages in the coast of Arrecife, San Bartolomé and the neighboring municipality of Tías, from Yaiza we have already established our rejection by presenting last week well-founded technical allegations by the municipal area of Environment to the Government of the Canary Islands".
Therefore, the also counselor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote in the opposition makes clear that "we position ourselves against new exploitations whether or not they are on the coast of Yaiza, because the affectation of the cages ends up damaging the entire island and what we intend is that there is a conscientious review by the Autonomous Community of the 'Plan for the Management of Aquaculture in the Canary Islands'".
Óscar Noda recalls "that we suffered the affectation for more than 20 years in Playa Quemada and we do not want more damages for Lanzarote with this new initiative of farming gilthead seabream, sea bass and tuna. The seabed of Playa Quemada is still not cleaned and regenerated, we did not have guarantees of surveillance by Fisheries, nor do I believe that in the future the municipalities directly affected will have them".
Yaiza once again made available to the island all its legal experience and environmental scientific studies commissioned in Playa Quemada; the last one, carried out by the NGO 'Innoceana' last year, which yielded "forceful" results: "a great regression in the seagrass beds and accumulation of mud on the seabed". The concession in Playa Quemada went from 10 tuna fattening cages to 53 gilthead seabream and sea bass farming cages.
The City Council emphasizes in its allegations to the cages that are now intended to be located between La Bufona and Playa del Barranquillo that the "most important impacts associated with this activity derive from the fact that the facilities produce an input of particulate organic matter and soluble inorganic excretory waste".
The technical report warns, among other things, that "gagafrecho and the seagrass beds of Guasimenta are spaces that have been declared since September 2011 as Special Conservation Areas (SAC), a figure contained in the 'Natura 2000 Network' and whose purpose is to ensure the long-term survival of the most threatened species and natural habitats in Europe, contributing to stop the loss of biodiversity caused by the adverse impact of human activities".
The floating cages full of fish represent an "obstacle" to hydrodynamics and local sedimentary dynamics, favoring the deposition of particulate material (both derived from cultivation and of natural origin) in the vicinity of the facilities.
