The Spanish NGO confederation “Ecologistas en Acción” is calling for the trade in “blood-stained” prawns to be halted.
Spain, France and Italy are the major European importers of prawns farmed in the tropics which, according to Ecologistas en Acción, is an unsustainable industry that causes poverty and armed conflicts.
Farmed prawns have become the most important product by value in international fish trade, but this trade brings no benefits whatsoever to local communities in areas where industrial aquaculture has been developed. On the contrary, it has plunged these populations into poverty, and there is considerable evidence to show that it has caused human rights to be seriously and repeatedly violated.
Increasingly, research is revealing the hidden face of this industry. In many coastal zones where the industry has been developed 99% of which are in tropical developing countries such as Ecuador, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh social and environmental injustice is on the increase. Behind the prawn-farming industry there are stories which cannot be ignored – they are the reality of prawn and shrimp production, a reality of the destruction of a territory and the impoverishment of a people.
In numerous countries, the affected populations, farmers and fishermen, who depend on access to areas which are being destroyed by the aquaculture industry, have tried to resist and protest against its expansion. This has led to conflicts that have ended in the deaths of fishermen, farmers and other inhabitants of coastal zones at the hands of security guards working for aquaculture businesses.
Furthermore, to prevent theft in its facilities, this industry has erected electrified fences along roads and rivers used by fishermen and fisherwomen and shellfish harvesters. Due to this, last January we received more tragic news, about the death of a 22-year-old fisherman, who was electrocuted while collecting shellfish after slipping on high-voltage barbed wire.
Deaths apart, injuries, unlawful detentions, torture, threats, harassment and the repeated rape of women have also been documented in various locations where this industry is based. All this makes it clear that the sale of prawns produced by these industrial operations is NOT ethical from any perspective.
It is a matter of urgency that the European distributors stop marketing prawns that are produced by an unsustainable industry which is destroying the livelihoods of many poor countries, that increases global hunger and social inequality and which daily threatens the lives of men and women.
Ecologistas in Acción’s campaign is calling on the main Spanish distributors to stop trading in blood-stained prawns. They have estabished an online petition which they hope will assist this call. To sign the petition go to: http://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/article22438.html#outil_sommaire_0
For more information, contact Lydia Chaparro: pesca@ecologistasenaccion.org