A "heinous crime". This is how the Union of Fisheries Workers of the South speaks about the possible installation of a 10-hectare nursery in the Ria Formosa.
The General Directorate of Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services (DGRM) published, on the 19th of November, a notice that gives an account of an application for the attribution of an Aquaculture Activity Title (TAA) to be installed in Ria Formosa.
If this license is granted, "it will allow the occupation of an area that is identified as a natural bank area for bivalve molluscs," according to the Union.
In addition, this is an "area on which a considerable number of shellfish gatherers depend, without a boar clam nursery, and also serves a considerable number of nurserymen who go there to collect the juveniles (seed clams) with a view to restocking their nurseries."
«As far as we know, according to this Notice of DGRM, the title was requested by the company Bivalvia – Mariscos da Formosa, Lda, which everything indicates if it will later be called Bivalves dos Areais and that it will be destined to the growth and fattening of oysters -Portuguese, Japanese oyster and cockleshell and that, according to the law, this title (TAA) will be granted for a maximum period of 25 years, renewable once».
The Union expects the management of the Ria Formosa Natural Park to "demonstrate against, on time, under the ongoing public consultation process, until the 13th of December."
Only in this way will it be possible to “avoid yet another heinous crime against the Ria Formosa, which will result in a violent attack on those who have always lived, worked and produce in the Ria Formosa, the same people who want to continue to inhabit, live, work and produce in the Ria Formosa".
The Association of Residents of Culatra has also gone public against this project. In this sense, the PS deputies, elected by the Algarve, questioned the Minister of the Sea about the Government's intentions.
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