Tuna fair in Playa de Santiago tomorrow

Tomorrow, Saturday July 9th 2022, Playa de Santiago in La Gomera's south will host a 'Tuna Fair' from 10am with cookery demostrations, fish and wine pairings, free tapas, children's events, market stalls, live music and surprises. All is themed around fresh tuna, as Playa de Santiago's port is where most of La Gomera's tuna catch is landed and all along the south coast you can still see the ruins of several tuna canneries.

Fishing or leaping ?

The above image shows the statue near the picnic area at the Embalse de La Encantadora, the large irrigation-water reservoir near Vallehermoso in La Gomera's north-west. The lake-like reservoir contains plenty of fish, and permits for angling are available for a small fee from the local town hall. Should you catch anything, you can cook it right there as the lovely picnic area boasts ovens and barbecues, basic kitchen facilities (all under a traditional roof) and clean toilets. Most times there's even a large stack of firewood supplied for use by the public and all these facilities are free of charge. A great place for parties, too, but please inform the locals and the town hall of your plans if a larger crowd is expected to attend. The locals nearby are very helpful and it might be a good idea to invite them. They do make good wine there, you know...

The statue of the aboriginal Gomeran stands on a small headland jutting out into the artificial lake very close to the picnic area.

However, he's not holding a fishing rod, nor some type of spear. The long pole he grips was and still is used for the so-called 'salto del pastor' (shepherd's leap), a means to speedily traverse the rough and steep terrain of La Gomera. There's more about that tradition, with a video of how it's still done today here...

Fishy tales from La Gomera

Beaked whale stranded in Charco del Conde, Valle Gran Rey (Image: Ayuntamiento Valle Gran Rey)

While we're roasting in Gomera-like summer heat here in the west of Ireland, Damien Enright (himself 'stranded' in La Gomera due to Corona curtailments) reported from the island in the Irish Examiner yesterday:

'' Damien Enright: Merciless predation on the beaches of Gomera

Gomera is always replete with stories to tell, and this week is no exception. For me, it began in serendipitous accord with my recent theme of “small is beautiful” when I found myself waist-high in the sea surrounded by small, lifeless fish floating laterally, not belly up, glittering like spangles on the surface.

I picked one up, then two. They were as fresh as if in life, unusual and elegant. I laid two across my open palm, one pink, one metallic blue, each with a nose one third of its body length. Snipe trumpet fish, they are called, ‘trompeteros’. So long is the appendage that snipe trombone fish might suit them better. I took photos. I’d display them but the space is better filled by the image of a second item of deep-water fauna that beached here, so I will just tell the trumpet fish story.

They live at depths in tropical and sub-tropical waters in sea mounts at depths to 600m. They come to the surface at night to feed on crustacean zooplankton and return at dawn. Wouldn’t it take them half the night just to arrive? No, because, in shoals, they ride currents like geyser spouts rising from the submarine canyons. Tragically, however, they sometimes cannot find gaps in the ‘geysers’ and, not strong enough to swim against them, cannot make the return journey to the cool, dark depths that are their home.

Stranded on the surface under the heat of the sun, they die in their millions, are a feast for gulls, wash up in swathes on island beaches, forming heaps half the height of haystacks until buried rather than left stinking in the sun.

Snipe trumpet fish close up (Damien Enright)

A tragic sight, but not so sad as the solitary creature lying on broken rocks at the mouth of ‘the baby beach’ as it is called, a shallow pool with a fringe of black sand and perfect for children’s bathing.

I watched it as it was washed in, a dead cuvier’s beaked whale, the tide carrying it relentlessly onto the rocks where it lay as the sea pulled back. Later, the beach was cordoned off until yesterday when a big boat got in at high tide to harpoon it and tow it to the pier where a JCB lifted it onto a truck to be taken away for burial.

Cuvier’s beaked whales are toothed whales that can dive deeper (to over 1km) and stay underwater longer (20 to 40 minutes) than any other mammal. Incredibly, studies have recorded them at depths of 3km, staying 138 minutes without coming up for air. The ‘beak’ enables them to suck in their prey, often of giant squid or octopus. The jaw makes them appear to be smiling. Mature adults average 6m in length. The whale on the rocks was about 4m, a rough estimate when my son scrambled over the rocks and stood alongside it to take a picture.

What fate brought this fine creature to its untimely demise? As we know, the laws of nature are unforgiving, and not always fair. It is not always for food that predators kill, but for sport.

We have seen Attenborough television footage of orcas tossing live seals into the air like netballs players throw a ball. Orcas or sharks may have killed this animal not for food but for fun. The flesh of the tail had been stripped away leaving a metre of bare white vertebrae, as thick as your arm.

Without the tail to drive its plunge, the animal couldn’t dive to its native depths and evade the killers.

The many wounds on its body may have been sustained in battles with other males, shark bites and rock tears as it washed ashore; blood was in pools around it, blood which, until earlier, poured into the sea.

The scent and sight of blood naturally attracts even more predators. It was sad to see this unique, apparently healthy, animal lying dead on the sharp black rocks fringing the beach of black sand.

Presently, there is the annual run of bluefin tuna between the islands of La Gomera and El Hierro, and sharks, orcas and local artisan-owned fishing boats gather to harvest the bounty.

Fishing boats can take a quota of 500kg per year. One of my son’s friends comes from a Hierro fishing family. Last year, his father’s quota was filled by just two bluefin one of almost 300kg, the other of 190kg.

What happens if a boat hooks a bluefin that weighs over half a ton (if any exist still) half the size of the boat and almost as powerful as its engines. How can they let it go? I don’t know. Life’s a learning process.

I’m curious to find out.'' (Damien Enright, Irish Examiner)

Large port and marina planned for Playa de Santiago

The existing harbour in La Gomera's southernmost town of Playa de Santiago will be dwarfed if the plans for a large extension of the pier and port will get funding. The plans have been around for quite some time but nothing has happened yet due to lack of financial support. Recently there have been renewed political efforts to have funds for project included in the 2018 budget of the Canarian government and to apply for some EU aid under the cohesion heading.

The project when first drawn up had a price tag of around 106.5 million Euros and will involve massive movement of rock and concrete, of which the municipal region of Alajero, in which Playa de Santiago is situated has more than plenty. The new port, if built, will provide berths for ships and ferries of up to 340 ft in length, a marina with berths for about 350 pleasure craft of various sizes, a dedicated comercial fishing section and ancillary works. 

If only they would finish the port of Valle Gran Rey, which badly needs a marina and has been awaiting the final 'phase two' for many years, first...

Below an impressive animated introduction to the ambitious plans for Playa de Santiago

The former fish cannery at La Rajita

I found the following interesting article today:

''La Rajita was formerly one of the centres of La Gomera's fishing industry, thanks to a factory operated by the Alicante-based Lloret y Llinares company, and until the 1960s it played an important role in the island economy.

Several such small fish salting, processing and packing factories were established in the nineteenth century and by the 1920s were flourishing, thanks to the island's situation and topography.

La Gomera was situated on a main tuna migration route, (and still is, but today's tuna population is miniscule in comparison).  There is also an ample coastal platform where valleys meet the sea.  The potential profit of this wealth of mobile food passing by, together with the relative ease of siting sheltered coastal fish factories, was soon efficiently exploited.  There were three such plants on the island's southern coast, one of which flourished from 1909 until 1986 at La Rajita.

© IslandConnections.eu

During the 1960s, a massive three quarters of all fish disembarked in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, that is, on the islands of Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro, as well as La Gomera, was absorbed by these three plants on La Gomera, two of which were set in isolated valleys, and the third in Playa Santiago.

The 60s heralded the end of their heyday.  Various factors, such as an outdated fleet, Japanese factory boats, the depletion of fishing grounds, lack of capital for modernisation and increasing local demands for fair wages, together with the availability of cheap labour in North Africa, caused crisis in the sector.

None of the three plants survived, despite this promising early 70s Agencia de Extensión Agraria report: “The preserves factory in La Rajita on La Gomera processes fish caught in the south of the island, the most important species being tuna and mackerel.  The factory also makes 'caviar Gomera', which is much appreciated (mackerel and sea bream roe).  La Rajita has an annual production of approximately 2,400 tons”.

Many workers came round by boat, weather permitting, from nearby Valle Gran Rey on a daily basis.  Women worked as fish cleaners and packers, men as tradesmen and fishermen.  There was a single story, cement factory, surrounded by workers' flats, boat houses for the small fishing fleet, a jetty, a football pitch, a shop, a gofio mill, chicken houses, goat pens, a thriving school and a chapel.

La Rajita's population slowly dwindled when the factory closed.  By the late 80s, the last families moved out.  Valle Gran Rey's tourist trade was growing, offering employment.  The access road between La Dama and La Rajita was in poor condition and in any case, there was little opportunity for either work or leisure activities in La Dama.

A few workers found employment in the banana cooperative there, but the school that La Rajita's children were relocated to was tiny, with children between three and twelve in one class.  The coup de grace came with the offer of newly built council housing in Valle Gran Rey for the remaining La Rajita population....''

The above appeared a couple of days ago on Island Connections.eu (click for complete article)

Good catch, but what is it ?

You can often see fishermen proudly carrying their catch through the streets of Vueltas, the lively harbour of Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera. Mostly I  recognise the species, but a few days ago this large fellow on the cart baffled me. 
A few days later I met the fisheries inspector and showed the picture to him. He immediately said that this is a Mero, belonging the grouper family of fish. The fellow in the picture is of average size as meros can grow much larger and may even attain 500 lbs  (250 kgs) weight. They're highly valued for their excellent taste and the lean white meat has been  compared to chicken. The head makes a delicious soup, I was told, but their gills are razor-sharp, so handle with care.
They are very difficult to catch as they live in holes and caves on the bottom of the sea and usually make for home as soon as they're hooked and have the abilility to bite through strong lines. They also use their powerful gill muscles to 'lock' themselves between rocks and are almost impossible to be dislodged, 
A subspecies is called mero capitan and is beautifully  golden-yellow on the whole body. When a fisherman is lucky enough to catch on of the 'captains', he keeps it alive in a cage to be then submerged again near where it was caught. The mero capitan will subsequently 'call his crew', i.e. attract other groupers away from their hide-outs, and the fisherman has a much better chance of catching them. If you happen to catch it on the menu anywhere, go for it.