Less than 60 kilometres separate the Spanish coastal city of Vigo from the Galician capital, Santiago de Compostela, known to many as the final destination and pilgrimage site of the Camino de Santiago. Galicia is green and proverbially "fresh". While the rest of Spain suffered under a severe heatwave in July 2023, summer temperatures here hovered between 19°C and 25°C with sunshine and regular rain. This is Spain's rugged, northern and highly verdant Atlantic coast. Reducing this region merely to Europe's largest fish market and associated shark fisheries does it an injustice. We have previously visited this part of Vigo and published several reports on the subject. We returned to the site to present a series on Vigo over the coming weeks: snapshots, some coincidental, others deliberate, covering positive and negative aspects, the beautiful and the distressing. Vigo 2023: a place of complexity and ambivalence that provokes reflection.Porto de Vigo, the Port.For marine conservationists, the name Vigo primarily conjures bloody images of large quantities of dead sharks—undeniably distressing, and for us as ocean advocates and part of the initiative #StopFinningEU, more poignant than ever. However, Vigo is more than just a landing site for blue sharks, though they were the primary reason for our team's visit to the city and its fish auction halls. On site, however, we began to reflect: does Vigo need to be, or deserve to be, notorious solely as a shark transhipment hub? Could the city not cultivate a different reputation? Would it not be preferable if the city could thrive without shark carcasses? We looked closer and discovered a place that also combines positive aspects, with many friendly and sustainably minded residents. Vigo has a population of approximately 300,000. The port is the origin and nucleus of the city, where almost everyone lives with and from maritime activities. The bay is dominated by shipyards, large warehouses, car loading facilities, the container terminal, large fish halls and commercial seafood enterprises. Hundreds of mussel aquaculture rafts sit in the estuary. The city proper, with its historic centre, frames this industrial landscape along the steep slopes of the Verdugo delta. Concrete walls can increase biodiversity.One of the sustainability initiatives at the Port of Vigo involves testing "E-Concrete" (eco-concrete). These are concrete panels designed to mimic the natural structure of rocks, providing an ideal substrate for kelp, algae and other organisms such as bivalves and sponges, which rapidly colonise the plates. This colonisation is followed by fish, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, pipefish and seahorses. Within three months, a new ecosystem has established itself around the "Nautilus" observation platform in the Port of Vigo. It is already highly diverse, prompting optimistic projections for its state in a year's time. Life consistently finds a way when given the opportunity. The president of the port authority, Carlos Botana Lagaron, personally presented the project to us. He envisages significant potential for revolutionising ports globally as ecological habitats. Bare concrete walls could be replaced by living habitats in all areas where vessels do not permanently berth. We will continue to monitor the project, but we find the approach highly sensible and hope to see it replicated elsewhere. The "Crab".Plastic pollution is also a major challenge in the Port of Vigo. Consequently, the port authority commissioned the development of a specialised vessel that regularly collects plastic debris within the harbour. Due to its shape, which resembles crab pincers, the operators refer to it as the "Crab". This concept, combined with the new habitats created by ecologically active quay walls (see Part 3/13), has genuine potential. The objective is to mitigate the adverse impacts of our civilisation until definitive solutions are implemented to prevent plastic from entering the oceans. The hawk in the port.Some occurrences are stranger than fiction. Imagine working as a camera operator in a seaport. Positioned in front of you is a highly expensive camera—which is suddenly in danger of tipping over because a Harris's hawk has landed on it. Hendrik Schmitt of "The Jetlagged" visibly held his breath. Fortunately, both the animal and the equipment survived the encounter undamaged. After a brief pause, the female hawk returned to the arm of her falconer, Daniel.
The role of the two Harris's hawks and their falconers in the Port of Vigo is highly practical: gulls, as constant companions of the sardine fishers, can become aggressive when competing for fish. Anyone who has dined on a promenade near the North Sea knows how assertively these large birds can act. In the Port of Vigo, the Harris's hawks deter the gulls, allowing fishers to unload their catches undisturbed by hundreds of birds.
The Zé do Apache: shark fishing, unsustainable.
On 24 July 2023, the Portuguese longliner Zé do Apache landed sharks in Vigo, as it does almost weekly. The most alarming aspect of this vessel's catch was the demographic composition of the landed animals: approximately 1,300 extremely young blue sharks (Prionace glauca) were stacked across 15 pallets. Barely neonates, already caught on longline hooks.
The total weight of blue shark landed that day was nearly 7.7 tonnes. This included nine sharks with an average weight of 43 kg each, and approximately 1,300 blue sharks weighing around 5 kg each.
It is critical to note that these blue sharks are classified as by-catch; the Fishery licence is officially for swordfish (Xiphias gladius). Of the target species, the vessel landed a single specimen weighing 127 kg—alongside approximately 60 times that weight in "unwanted" by-catch. This represents the systemic depletion of the North Atlantic.
AIS tracking data explains why so many juvenile, non-reproductive sharks are caught: the Zé do Apache fish exclusively off the Portuguese coast in a known pupping ground for blue sharks. We strongly dispute any claim that this catch was an accidental occurrence dominated by incidental by-catch. We allege clear intent; this vessel deliberately targeted juvenile blue sharks.
This generation of sharks will be missing from the species' reproductive pool in five to eight years—eradicated by an unsustainable fishing practice that lands catches in Vigo on a near-weekly basis.
Sustainable, small-scale local sardine fisheries.
In the Port of Vigo, we met José Manuel S.A., skipper of an 18-metre fishing vessel that targets sardines (Sardina pilchardus) and mackerel (Scomber scombrus) using purse seine nets. José is a small-scale, sustainable local fisher—one of those who bear the brunt of industrial-scale fishing operations. He has been in the industry for 40 years and has witnessed highly volatile periods.
Not long ago, he recalls, sardine stocks collapsed entirely due to overfishing. He speaks of large industrial vessels that used to land up to 80 tonnes of sardines and mackerel at a time in Vigo. "It was permitted back then. And if you operate a large vessel, you must run a profitable business, which means you have to catch fish in those volumes," José explains.
He operates a small vessel and is currently permitted to put to sea on only four days a week, under strict regulations. When stocks collapsed years ago, it triggered seven difficult years during which many small-scale local fishers abandoned the trade or moved to other sectors. Strict conservation measures were implemented during this period. They proved successful: after seven years of protection, the stocks recovered, and sardines returned in large numbers. Nevertheless, fishers must adhere to strict quotas, a policy of which José is somewhat critical.
Modern technology, which was unavailable years ago, allows José to determine precisely which school of fish he is encircling with his purse seine, and the volume of fish inside the net. His vessel has a capacity of 3.2 tonnes. Initially, all fish remain in the net; any surplus fish that cannot be loaded on board are released back into the sea alive. This represents a highly sustainable fishery regulated by strict quotas.
Yet José faces significant economic anxieties. Sardines currently fetch an average of just 60 cents per kilogram at the Vigo fish auction. Consequently, his 3.2-tonne capacity yields only about €2,000 per trip under optimal conditions. From this, he must cover vessel and gear maintenance, fuel, taxes and crew wages. "A vessel like the Colomba, which I operate, requires a crew of ten and must generate an average of €4,000 per day to remain viable. Yet we are only allowed out four days a week, or 16 days a month." José fears he may eventually have to cease operations if these conditions do not improve.
Furthermore, José notes the presence of large French and Norwegian industrial trawlers fishing for sardines and mackerel with massive purse seines. These industrial operations are not subject to the same local restrictions, which visibly frustrates him: "There must be a balance between sustainable fishing and business viability."
(Free translation and summary of the interview conducted in Galician.)
We must agree with José's conclusion. It is not small-scale fishers who represent the threat, but the industrial fishing vessels of up to 140 metres in length that are depopulating the oceans.
We encountered an engaging fisher who fears for his livelihood, despite representing the very kind of sustainable solution that should be encouraged.
The Fascinios do Mar, vessel registration: PTVIC-113721-C.
West of the Azores lie the fishing grounds of most Spanish and Portuguese longliners, including the Fascinios do Mar, which also landed its catch in Vigo on 24 July 2023.
The catch composition was typical of these operations:
142 blue sharks (Prionace glauca) with a total weight of 6.992 t
21 swordfish (Xiphias gladius) with a total weight of 0.903 t
2 Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) with a total weight of 0.418 t
43 snake mackerels (Gempylidae) with a total weight of 0.559 t
Here too, blue sharks far outnumbered all other species. In this instance, however, they were largely sexually mature sharks with an average gutted weight of approximately 49 kg each.
These figures may seem clinical and analytical, but they are critical to illustrating the core issue: alongside juveniles, this reproductive parental generation is also being systematically removed. Although they may have already reproduced, their loss still undermines the long-term conservation of the species.
Vigo's plastic beach.
The Illa de Arousa, an island off the coast of Galicia, lies approximately 60 kilometres north of Vigo and hosts the "Parque Natural de Carreirón" nature reserve. The island is popular with locals for excursions, and its beaches are frequented by bathers.
Yet this island also faces severe plastic pollution. In addition to typical consumer waste (cotton buds, packaging, clothes pegs and other single-use plastics), we found numerous unusual plastic rods of a type we had never previously observed on a beach.
The explanation: these are plastic pegs used in mussel aquaculture. Made from recycled plastic, they are inserted into the cultivation ropes to provide better support for the growing mussels. These aquaculture rafts surround the Galician estuaries and coastlines like a network of thousands of tiny artificial islands. According to the manufacturer of these pegs, "They are made of top-quality material, flexible and unbreakable, standing up to the modern machinery used to shake the mussels off the ropes. They are designed not to fall off the ropes, even when these lose torsion over time." (Source).
This marketing claim is clearly inaccurate: the pegs routinely fall into the sea when the extremely heavy mussel ropes are harvested, and they wash up on beaches by the hundred. It raises the question of whether natural materials, such as wood, could be used instead.
Ray wings.
It is well known that rays (Batoidea) are consumed in southern Europe, including Spain. It is therefore unsurprising to find large quantities of rays at Europe's largest fish market.
To an observer unfamiliar with these species, their anatomy raises a practical question: what edible tissue do they yield, other than cartilage? Like sharks, rays are elasmobranchs (cartilaginous fish) and possess virtually no skeletal muscle outside of their pectoral fins ("wings"), which are the primary product marketed.
Clearly, however, a market for ray wings persists.
Who consumes ray wings?
Remarkably, there are over 700 recipes for ray wings available on major German-language culinary websites alone. Searching the most popular portal for amateur chefs yields over 700 distinct culinary preparations featuring ray wings.
We strongly advise against the consumption of rays—not only due to urgent conservation concerns, but also explicitly due to health risks. Consumers should avoid this product entirely.
Whom we met in Vigo: our subjects.
Marine organisms that have paid with their lives to satisfy human seafood consumption.
A wise commentator once noted: "Saving one animal will not change the world, but surely for that one animal, the world will change forever."
Let these images of deceased individuals speak for themselves. They deserve our respect, as systematic ecological destruction continues unabated in Vigo.
Our conclusion from the July 2023 expedition: the situation is critical.
Practices continue in Europe that run counter to the values expected of an advanced society. Driven by profit, we are systematically destroying the very ecosystems that support us—a process that threatens not only marine species, but ultimately our own survival.
Every individual—both as a consumer and as a citizen—holds the power to influence this trajectory. Initiatives like #StopFinningEU work to address these issues, as do our own public education efforts.
There remains a long way to go.
However, we must express our gratitude to the port police, who permitted and supported our presence when they could have reacted differently. Alongside a accommodating port authority, they demonstrated transparency and assisted us in securing an interview with a local sardine fisher.
There are always two sides to every issue, and we observed both in the Port of Vigo. Amid the distressing sights of dead sharks, rays and millions of other fish traded daily on this market, we were generally received with civility, and our environmental concerns were listened to.
It is our consumption, our demand for fish and seafood, that drives this market. Every individual who consumes seafood shares responsibility for these outcomes.
This warrants serious reflection.
