Apr
24
Trout farmers in Spain’s region of Galicia – which accounts for 26% of Spain’s farmed trout production – have warned a new regulation on river waters could lead to the closure of several sites if it remains unchanged.
In a bid to preserve the quality of its river basins, Spain has said it will implement measures from the European Water Framework Directive and set new levels for environmental flows, that is, the minimum amount of water a river carries to sustain freshwater, statuaries ecosystems and human livelihoods.
The new legislation is expected to enter into force in 2015. However, the Galician trout industry has complained that the new system is flawed and could affect 13 sites that would have to shut down as a result.
According to the industry, the system’s method to work out environmental flows yields misleading results, resulting, eventually, in economic damages to the trout sector, in many cases forcing aquaculture sites to close.
“From only 11 water metering stations already based in the coast of Galicia, data gathered extrapolates the reality of 400 masses of water, which involves an overestimation of flows,” Susana Portela, technical representative at the National Continental Aquaculture Association (ESACUA) told Undercurrent News.
Galician rivers are relatively short, which means they are quite plentiful in winter but during the summer dry months there is a considerable drop in flow.
The environmental flow set in the first draft of the new regulation is much higher than the actual flow the river carries over summer, Portela explained, meaning aquaculture sites cannot make use of any water from rivers during about three months, which would hit trout producers directly.
“Trout requires being in the water 12 months per year. If the [new regulation] is applied as it is proposed now, producers will not be able to maintain activity,” said Luz Arregui, quality director of Tres Mares Group, a Galician-based trout producer of €6 million turnover.
“This could lead to the closure of several sites in the Galician coast, as we need to capture water during the summer months,” Portela said.
Galician trout production accounts for 26% of total Spanish trout volumes – reaching in 2011 around 16,500 metric tons valued at €57.09m, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
Need for consensus
After carrying out technical studies to work out environmental flows, Augas de Galicia — an autonomous body part of the local government — presented at the beginning of the year the regulation proposal to be discussed with different stakeholders.
“Once we reach an agreement, Aguas de Galicia will make appropriate changes, taking into account the proposals, comments and suggestions received during the public consultation process,” the autonomous body told Undercurrent News in a written statement.
“We hope the administration take appropriate steps to reach an agreement but [the proposal] they have put already on the table without considering the social and economic effects, is just very difficult to understand,” Arregui said.
So far, 13 aquaculture sites claim to be affected for the new regulations. The trout sites are located by the Galician coast — Costa da Morte — a rural area with high unemployment rate.
Locals have already submitted 2,300 appeals against the new rule.
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