A research conducted by the “Facultad de Ciencias del Mar de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – ULPGC” (Marine Science College from Las Palmas – Gran Canaria) reveals that the cages used for aquaculture are incompatible with tourism, to be more precise, “they clash with the human usage of the beaches”, stated the professor of submarine Ecology and Environment Angel Luque. 

The hostelry business association ASHOTEL, that gathers the hotel business community from Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, together with the Ecology and Environment department of the ULPGC, released today a research on the impact of the fish culture cages on the tourist areas, putting into consideration the incompatibility of these cages with the tourist activity. 
 
During the press conference, Angel Luque said that the cages are structures devoted to animal production just like pig or chicken farms. “The impact of these cages is relevant, because the food used to feed the fish ends in the bottom of the sea and there is no control over the spills that cause a decrease of the biodiversity”, declared the professor of the ULPGC. 
 
For Luque, the existence of these cages in the southern area of Tenerife, “affect the behaviour of the bottlenose dolphins and other species that attracted by the food get close to the cages where they are easy preys for predators. The cages are also responsible for the spill in the ocean of nitrogen, phosphorus and antibiotics that “affect the marine environment”, he added.  
 
“Taking into consideration that the estimated production of fish for 2010 will be about 4,000 tons in the area of Tenerife, and apart from the fact that it is located in an area of local interest (Teno-Rasca), this region will receive a spill of 480,000kilos of nitrogen and 67,200kilos of phosphorus that are equal to the spills of a 130,000 population”, the said.  
 
“Aquaculture produces a great number of negative outcomes, as the quality of the water and sediments column, the competition between cultured species and wild species, and the reduction in the biodiversity, although the artificial breeding generates more biology”, said Luque. Besides, the professor pointed out that the use of antibiotics in aquiculture generates a high degree of antibiotics in the blood, muscles and livers of the cultured and wild fish. 
 
Juan Gorrín, major of Santiago del Teide, said that they are not against aquaculture “but we do not agree with the installation of these fish farms near the beaches”. He also said that the fish farms shall be located in areas designed by the Council of Tenerife and he added that he was against the initiative to multiple by four the production in Los Gigantes bay area.  
 
The president of Ashotel, José Fernando Cabrera, agreed with the major and said he was against the production increasing in Los Gigantes bay, and that he was surprised by the installation of additional facilities without an environmental study on the subject. He also reminded the journalists that Ashotel has been reporting this situation for two years, submitting formal complaints to the local government demanding the cease of the activities of these fish farms in the tourist coastline, when there are more suitable places where these activities can be developed. “To relocate the cages near the coastline or in the open sea, as we requested, supposes the investment of a low amount of money”, he pointed out.
  
After assuring that the aquaculture is an important productive activity for the island, Cabrera said that “we have to make an effort to relocate these fish farms far away from the coast where they do not affect the tourist image of the island, and where the environmental impact they cause do not damage the marine bottom”.