Representatives of the 10 fishermen’s associations of Tenerife, restaurateurs from San Miguel de Tajao and even schoolchildren from Arico will meet today, from ten to twelve in the morning, in front of the Port Authority headquarters to show their rejection of the future installation of offshore wind farms off the coast of Güímar, Fasnia, Arico and Granadilla de Abona, as stated in the POEM (Management Plan for Marine Spaces) of the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
Although the regional advisor for Ecological Transition, Jose Antonio Valbuenarecognized in NOTICE DIARY that this installation “would not arrive until at least 2030, when Tenerife has a storage center, with which it is being built in Gran Canaria, with the Chira-Soria waterfall”, the truth is that 92 square kilometers are already collected in the POEM off the coast that goes from Güímar to the port of Granadilla, and, in any case, very close to the coast, barely a mile, within the continental shelf where fishermen, for example from San Miguel de Tajao, fish almost at diary.
They consider that the installation of these marine parks, both anchored to the bottom and those that are attached to platforms, “are not compatible with fishing,” recalled Fran García, manager of the San Miguel de Tajao fishermen’s association, a small coastal town in Arico where the entire economy is based on fish, such as its 13 restaurants.
Moisés Pires, the well-known international diver who helped the fishermen in the unsuccessful search for his partner Francis, who disappeared in that area almost two years ago, is advising the Tajao brotherhood and explains that “any interaction with the marine environment will always create an impact environment, whether fixed or mobile installations.
This “does not mean that we are against alternative energy, but rather that in Tenerife it is difficult to extrapolate this type of energy, especially when the continental shelf is so short. No one is against anything, but they are against combining alternative energies with fishing, and it cannot be done that way, because we are talking about inshore fishing, not deep sea, very coastal”.
He also pointed out that “we are not talking about the Baltic Sea, where there are areas with little traffic and life.” To top it all off, “it’s outrageous to place all those windmills in such a small space, but we already know that this is a David vs. Goliath fight.”
