The systematic looting of natural resources from poor countries by an international economic system that benefits elites and large companies is intolerable, especially when it comes to looting their food resources.
In a capitalist world where corporate profit prevails, certain economic activities must be regulated by international norms that prohibit doing business with the hunger of the most disadvantaged countries, and it is up to us as citizens to be informed of what is behind these industries and demand that our rulers act.
In the 80s of the last century, aquaculture was sold to us as the panacea to avoid the overexploitation of the seas, technological advances allowed us to go further and further and capture fish where they previously remained safe from human activity, species of high economic value were captured, causing the depletion of many of the world's main fishing grounds, nowadays with the rise of aquaculture not only are
profitable fish captured for sale for human consumption, everything is fished, giving rise to a clearly unsustainable activity, two thirds of the world's catches are used for the production of flour for feed
The species that are most cultivated today are carnivorous (sea bass and sea bream, in the case of the Canary Islands), so the feed must have a high content of animal fats. To obtain these feeds, fishing must continue, fish that were not previously fished by the fleets of the first world countries are fished because of their low commercial value but which make up a very important part of the diet of the population of many poor countries.
It is estimated that to obtain 1kg of farmed fish, 4 kg of wild fish are needed, the rise of aquaculture due to its high profits is causing the depletion of the fishing grounds of many places, fish are fished which are often at the bottom of the trophic chain, immature fish are captured that have not yet reproduced and all the fish that can be transformed into flour for feed, causing a real collapse of the
fish populations, putting at risk the balance of the oceanic habitats and also of many human communities that depend on them for their food
The emigration from the countries of the south to the rich north has been occurring for many decades but never in such a massive and dangerous way as today. The ruling elites in many coastal countries sell their fishing resources to foreign companies that end up with these resources, condemning their people to go hungry and have to emigrate, risking their lives in precarious and overcrowded boats. We know about those that arrive but not about those that stay on the road, we are witnessing a real humanitarian catastrophe as mere spectators.
There are many studies on the impacts of raising fish in macro-farms that I am not going to go into, after 20 years of the fish farm in Playa Quemada we know something, escapes were frequent, especially of sea bass, a large predator of cold waters not common in the waters of the Canary Islands, these fish once free become feral and compete with the natural predators of our waters, causing a great impact on them, large
shoals of feral fish eating practically everything, causing a collapse of the island habitat of difficult recovery. There is no data on these escapes, at least that has been made public, secrecy is the norm and many times this data is made by the same companies
Authorizing the breeding of predatory fish in seas where they are not common can cause an ecological catastrophe in the marine environment due to escapes as we have already pointed out, another great risk is the proliferation of diseases. The cultivation of fish in overcrowded cages facilitates the spread of infectious diseases that, either through escapes or other means, can affect wildlife.
Betting on the breeding of sea bream and sea bass, contributing to a human and environmental catastrophe, cannot be the way to diversify the economy, there are other more sustainable and responsible aquaculture modalities, if we want to continue advancing it is essential not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
