Date Published: 25/02/2020
ARCHIVED - Lorca Town Hall unanimously opposes plans for huge fish farm close to popular beaches
ARCHIVED ARTICLE 
All parties unite in opposition to the project just off the beaches of Calnegre
The project to create a huge fish farm just off the coastline of Lorca and the south-west of the municipality of Mazarrón, close to the picturesque beaches and coves in the area of Calnegre, has met with the unanimous opposition of the councillors in the Town Hall of Lorca, who voted on Monday to lodge formal objections to the plans.
Representatives of the PSOE, PP, Vox and Cs parties all backed a motion tabled by the local IU-Verdes group to register a formal complaint with the department of Water, Agriculture, Farming, Fishing and the Environment in the regional government, expressing their serious misgivings regarding a scheme which would imply the installation of 80 large cages or enclosures under 2 kilometres from the beaches of Lorca. Each cage would be circular with a diameter of 30 metres or so, and the plans are currently on public display.
The Town Hall of Lorca argues firstly that the creation of this fish farm would “bring nothing” to the local economy, and secondly that the facility would mean the dumping in the sea of 8 tons of fish excrement per year close to a stretch of coastline which has been declared a natural park. In total the establishment would occupy an area of 300 hectares, occupied by millions of young sea bream and gilthead bass (and possibly amberjack and corvina), and the stretch of coastline along which they would be placed is described as running from the beach of Parazuelos in Mazarrón to Cala Siscal in Lorca, part of a largely unspoilt and enormously attractive area of the Costa Cálida.
It is reported that each of the enclosures would be used to rear 440,000 young fish from a weight of 12 grams, and that each group of 10 cages would reach an annual production of 1,000 tons every 16 to 19 months. In other words, the whole establishment would produce around 8,000 tons of fish in just over a year.
When the plans were first announced Diego José Mateos, the Mayor of Lorca, expressed the opinion that the environmental importance of the Lorca coastline makes it incompatible with such a large fish farming concern, adding that “we have not had favourable experiences” in the field in the past. Councillor Gloria Martín of IU-Verdes warned of the “environmental damage” and “brutal impact on the landscape” that the fish farm could have, claiming that the excrement, fish food, anti-fouling paint and chemical substances involved in the project would affect an area inside a Natura 2000 conservation zone.
Originally the fish farm in question was planned to occupy an area of 130 hectares, but now it has been more than doubled to 297.
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