The Canary archipelago has almost the 8.56% of the fishing fleet Spanish. Only Andalusia and Galicia –which have more than half of the fishing boats in Spain to their credit– surpass the Canary Islands in number of vessels. Despite this, it is the Autonomous Community with less fish consumption from the country.
How is it possible that less fish is consumed on an island than in the interior? It is one of the questions that have flown over time and again the presentations of the 5th Meeting of the Seaswhich has been held for the first time in Tenerife: an island whose culinary and agri-food tradition has been completely transformed by mass tourism.
The Canary Islands are, together with the rest of the Macaronesian islands –Madeira and Azores–, the only place in the world through which the five large species of tuna, that can be caught throughout the year. But the majority of canaries live with their backs turned to this resource, which in other times was essential for the economy of the islands.
As it explains jose pascualprofessor of Social Anthropology at the University of La Laguna, the Canary Islands came to have more than a dozen factories of canned fish in the 19th century, but they all closed in the 1930s. Only one has reopened –Conservas Los Toledo, in Lanzarote–, focused on the market gourmet. 85% of the tuna caught on the islands is exported, while most of the canned fish and even frozen bluefin tuna from other latitudes are imported.
Seafood stews in extinction
The University of La Laguna carried out a study on the consumption of fish in the Tenerife hotels: There are only five on all the islands that offer local species. Even in restaurants, the panorama does not change much, although there is a generation of chefs determined to make the typically Canarian seafood cuisine known.
The Canaries are full of Asian restaurants, but it is increasingly difficult to eat local fish
One of them is Braulio Simancas. His restaurant, Silbo Gomero, is located in an industrial estate between Santa Cruz and La Laguna, but it is a place of pilgrimage for all lovers of gastronomy on the island.
“There is a loss of identity, We have become extremely globalized”says Simancas. “There are chefs who have come to contribute, but local chefs pay less and less attention to our land.” For some time now, he assures, Asian restaurants have not stopped proliferating, while it is increasingly difficult to find quality establishments that work with local fish such as old fish, grouper or skipjack.
This last fish Katsuwonus pelamiswas the protagonist of the stew that Braulio Simancas and his father, Pepe Simancas –in the opening photo–, they prepared on board a boat in one of the conference exits. Pepe, originally from La Gomera, has worked all his life as a fisherman, and it was his recipe for boiled mojo the one they followed to the letter: a simple stew in which the fish is cooked with cumin, parsley, garlic, paprika, vinegar and water.
The beautiful listing, in the summer season, is a product as tasty as it is cheap
Pure Canarian tradition, in danger of extinction, despite the fact that we are talking about a fish with an unbeatable quality-price. He nice list, which is in full season in summer, costs less than three euros per kilo in the Canary Islands. And it is a fish, Pepe insists, much better to prepare this stew than the much more appreciated bluefin tuna.
“It has a significant commercial margin, but It is a super product”explains his son, who always tries to work with humble and seasonal products, which allows him to sustain himself as a company without raising the bill paid by his customers.
In the Canary Islands there is also shrimp
On a geographical level, the Canary Islands are a extremely young territory. Of volcanic origin, and in full formation, they barely have a coastline. “That is a big difference with any other place”, explains the cook Erlantz Gorostiza, from the restaurant that Martín Berasategui has in Guía de Isora (Tenerife). “100 meters [de la costa] the depth of the sea goes to 400 or 500 meters. The difficulty of fishing at those depths is much greater, and the species that are caught there are less profitable, less noble”.
Prawns and shrimps are found in abundance in all the Canary Islands
The truth is that there are profitable species, but many had not even been exploited. This is the case of Canarian prawns and shrimps, which were not discovered until the 1970s by Carmelo Garcia Cabreraa researcher from the Oceanographic Institute, who located them between 60 and 250 m deep.
Today the prawns and carabineros of La Santa (Lanzarote)of enormous size, but the truth is that they are found in abundance on all the islands.
According to Pedro Pascualdoctor in marine biology and researcher at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, is a shellfish that is an example of sustainable fishing: “It has a high fertility, a high productivity. The impact that is made with the traps is very low, because the level of capture is relatively low and the populations have remained at the same levels from the 70s to the present”.
Canarias 3 (Lonely Planet Country Guides)
The Meeting of the Seas, which in its 5th edition had the motto “Conserve”, concluded with a clear idea: it is no longer enough to preserve what remains, it is necessary to regenerate the oceans. It seems a contradiction to affirm this while inviting species to be fished that, until now, had not been exploited, but most of the environmentalists invited to the congress have insisted on an idea: it will not be possible to protect nature if we do not value it, if it does not generate a quantifiable wealth, through activities that protect the sea, but generate an economic return that sustains the economies that look at it. A matter that, in view of this, requires another article. Don’t change the channel.
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