- Illegal fishing, contracting angulas, more profitable than cocaine
The ship in which scientists from the University of Córdoba and other institutions study the ecosystem of the Guadalquivir estuary has been burned, shortly after the Civil Guard undertook an operation to dismantle the illegal angula fishing structures in the area.
The professor of Biology of the University of Córdoba Carlos Fernández has no doubt that it has been a "revenge" in response to the Phoenix operation , with which 54 illegal angula fishing platforms were eradicated on Wednesday, an activity that is a It would be a threat to the biodiversity of the area and to the safety of navigation.
To develop the operation, in which more than 120 agents from different administrations participated, the Civil Guard wanted to have the support of this scientist, part of the group that studies the damage of the biodiversity of the Guadalquivir, and of the "chef of the sea" Angel León, in order to explain the impact of illegal angula fishing.
In response, "the mafias" that hide behind this illegal fishing "have attacked the weakest part, have attacked the easiest" by burning the vessel where scientists work tonight, explained the professor.
Ten years ago the boat that they rented to a fisherman in the area to carry out their investigations disappeared and this morning the one that this same man bought to replace the previous one has dawned totally calcined.
"They annoy us because they paralyze our work, but the greatest damage is done to him," he laments.
Those who set the boat on fire knew perfectly well, according to the professor, where it was stored, in a remote area that had been premeditatedly discreet after the first one was also attacked.
Lots of years
The illegal angula fishing platforms have been there "lots of years", like this scientific group that has been working in the area for two decades.
Illegal angula fishing, which at the foot of the river is sold at 400 euros a kilo and much more if transactions are made to mafias, especially oriental ones, which are engaged in their traffic, cause a great destruction in the life of the rivers because they they use networks of a millimeter of mesh light, in which all the species that cohabit with the angula fall.
"The extermination fishing that they do affects the aquatic macrofauna of the area, which is composed, at least, of 134 species, which are of gastronomic interest and therefore marketable, when they reach legal stature. Therefore, their illegal activity It has a negative impact on sea workers, who do their hard work respecting the laws and paying their taxes, "explains the Civil Guard in its statement on the Phoenix operation.
These platforms had sometimes become places to hide hashish stash, by the networks that use the Guadalquivir for landings.
They had also become a danger to navigation, especially for the persecutions of the Narco-Iron Security Forces.
Carlos Fernández explained that the group of researchers has thought precisely to ask the Administration to transfer some of the seized vessels to the drug traffickers to be able to replace the burned ship and continue its work in defense of the conservation of the ecosystem in this area of special biodiversity and of special sensitivity.
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