Scientists say that the sea will be key to food security and ask not to think only about protection

Scientists related to the marine world consider that the sea will be key in guaranteeing world food security and that protection of the natural environment must be combined with “sustainable” economic activity if a real impact is to be generated.

The marine biologist and executive director of Fundación MERI (Melimoyu Ecosystem Research Institute), Sonia Español-Jiménez, believes that the sea can be key in guaranteeing world food security “if it is done well” and “the oceans are once again given role it has” in the natural ecosystem.

Español-Jiménez stressed that it is necessary to “reconcile the two worlds” that represent the protection of marine ecosystems and the economic activity that takes place in them.

The director of the ocean team of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Minna Epps, also expressed herself in this direction, who put on the table that the blue economy is “the fastest growing” and, therefore, it is essential to “ensure that it is sustainable”.

“You have to think about economic sustainability, not just protection. We must work together”, he remarked in reference to the economic sectors and public institutions that are trying to take a step forward in the management of the sea. “We must protect together, plan together and learn together,” he said..

In this regard, the marketing director of Makro Spain, Chema León, also spoke, who said that the future lies in aquaculture and specifically for quality.

Thus, he came to indicate that at a certain point “there will be no other fish” on the consumer's table than that of aquaculture and that, for this reason, it is necessary to begin to value it. “It's a wonderful product and we'll get our peers to breathe,” he said..

The Cabildo de Tenerife, for its part, through Agustín Espinosa, a technician from the island's livestock and fishing service, highlighted that one of its priorities is to encourage the consumption of local products due to its double positive aspect: “reducing the carbon footprint” and contribute to “local economies”.

Another of the elements that the Cabildo focuses on is to diversify the consumption of species so that the pressure does not focus so much on some, such as tuna. Therefore, it advocates valuing species such as the salema or the striped burrito.

The commercial and marketing director of Aquanaria, Pedro Sánchez, stressed that advocating for quality means treating animals better and producing the least possible impact.

In fact, he explained that his environmental surveillance plan certifies that the fact that they operate in open water makes “the impact minimal.”.

Now “it seems logical” that treating animals well affects the quality of the product and its taste, but this “was not applied before”. “We are clear that one thing is to achieve volume and another is quality,” he concluded.

Offshore wind turbines, pending analysis of their impact

The MERI Foundation scientist also explained that offshore wind turbines still need to be fully understood about their impact on the ecosystem, although she said she understands that they do cause noise damage.

So that citizens understand what we sometimes turn the sea into with our activities, Español-Jiménez said that it is “like being in a disco for us” but the size “of a radius of 1,000 kilometers”, which makes communication difficult for some species of animals and their activity of capturing food.

The scientist concluded that the world is in a situation of “no return” when it comes to protecting the environment and especially the marine environment. “If we continue like this, if we don't change our way of production, 1.5 out of every 4 species will go extinct in the coming decades. We have to get our act together because we're going too late,” he said.