By 1775, Catalans were already operating in the Ría de Vigo with more than a 1,000 spiny lobster pots, a species already highly valued at that time.
At the end of the 19th century, an important and lucrative spiny lobster pot fishery originated in northern Spain. Spiny lobster landings were exported to France.
Historical records of those years reflect that spiny lobsters captured in Galicia and Cantabria were up to 9,000,000 specimens!
In the middle of the 20th century, spiny lobster landings were still important, with about 4,000 kg per boat during the 3-month campaign. However, overexploitation of the resource began soon. Fishermen pointed that the indiscriminate use of gillnet gear instead of traps as the main reason. Spiny lobster boats stopped operating in the mid-70s when the fishery collapsed.
The veteran former leader of "Santa Tecla" fishermen’s guild of A Guarda fishing port, Francisco Pérez, still recalls the impressive catches in the late sixties, when local fishermen caught up to 5,000 kg a week.
In the mid-1970s, lobster declined from the Galician and Portuguese coast, forcing A Guarda fleet to sail to Morocco to continue capturing this crustacean.
Spiny lobsters disappeared from Cíes Islands, in the Ría de Vigo, in the mid-1980s.
The disappearance from the coast of Galicia of such a symbolic species should alert us on the fragility of marine biodiversity in the face of overfishing.
It is up to us that this does not happen again with other species of crustaceans such as the brown crab, or the slipper lobster; or fish such as the moray eel, John dory and other species that have shown a marked decline in recent decades.
The solution is in our hands, and among other measures, it is based on creating marine reserves in which biodiversity is safely preserved. Marine reserves have proven excellent results in many parts of the world.
On the Spanish Mediterranean coast, they have been effective in the recovery of spiny lobster populations, directly benefiting fish stocks in their surroundings a few years after their creation.
It is an example that we should implement in the Cíes Islands.
Restoring the spiny lobster stock in Cíes Islands, it's possible!
Links related to this video:
www.researchgate.net/publicat... RAFAEL BAÑÓN DÍAZ*
Red Reservas Marinas España: www.mapa.gob.es/es/pesca/publ...
Reserva Marina Islas Columbretes
www.mapa.gob.es/es/pesca/tema...
PNMT del archipiélago de Cabrera:
www.caib.es/sites/espaisnatur...
Plan rector de uso del PNMTIAG
www.xunta.gal/dog/Publicados/...
Robert Sténuit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...
TESOROS Y GALEONES HUNDIDOS . Sténuit, Robert .Editorial: Juventud. Colección Z 160.
Filmed on: Cíes Islands. Galicia. Spain. Atlantic Ocean.