Spanish school, Research Station, Sustainable tourism, Ecotourism, Fish studies, Bird and other nature studies, Reforestation and Conservation Activities and Hostel in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, Nicaragua. Birdwatching, SCUBA diving, swimming, hiking, nature and wildlife watching. Hostel, great meals, great friends. Saving the planet and enjoying every minute of it!
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This article recently appeared in the New York Times April 4, 2016. In it, Gaia scientist Jeffrey McCrary discusses some of the environmental implications of the canal.
Lost in Nicaragua, a Chinese Tycoon’s Canal Project
BRITO, Nicaragua — A Spanish explorer conducted the first survey to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans here in the 16th century. Napoleon III of France dreamed about it. The railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt briefly had rights to do it. Nicaragua’s history is littered with dozens of failed canal schemes.
But when a Chinese billionaire, Wang Jing, officially broke ground in a field outside this sleepy Pacific Coast village about a year ago, many Nicaraguans believed that this time, finally, they would get their canal.
And not a small one, either. Three times as long and twice as deep as the Panama Canal, it would slice 170 miles across the southern part of the country — bulldozing through fragile ecosystems, virgin forests and scenes of incredible beauty. It would allow for the passage of the world’s largest ships, vessels the length of skyscrapers that are too big for the Panama Canal.
Yet 16 months later, Mr. Wang’s project — it would be the largest movement of earth in the planet’s history — is shrouded in mystery and producing angry protests here. President Daniel Ortega has not talked about the canal in public for months. And there are no visible signs of progress. Cows graze in the field where Mr. Wang officially began the project.
Experts say they are baffled by Mr. Wang’s canal. It may be backed by the Chinese government, part of its growing interest in Latin America, or may simply be a private investment cast adrift by the convulsions of China’s stock markets and its slowing economy.
At the time of the groundbreaking in December 2014, the Chinese government said it was not involved with the project. This and Mr. Wang’s recent setbacks — he has reportedly lost about 80 percent of his $10 billion fortune — make some experts say the deal is probably dead.
Others, however, say Chinese business practices are so opaque that it is hard to tell. Facilitating the movement of goods from the Pacific to the Atlantic aligns with Chinese interests, and the cost of the project is hardly an obstacle if the Chinese government wants to go forward — if it is involved.
Officials of Mr. Wang’s company say they are simply taking more time to do precon
“It’s a project that has been notoriously nontransparent,” said Margaret Myers, the director of the China and Latin America program at Inter-American Dialogue, a policy institute in Washington. She says she believes the project is probably dead for lack of funds, but like most experts is not sure.
What does seem clear is that the project’s critics — environmentalists, human rights advocates and economists — have grown more outspoken and organized. In this part of the country, many homeowners have stenciled “Go Away Chinese” on the sides of their houses, and virtually all the re-election posters for Mr. Ortega have been hit with black paint balls.
When he announced the deal in 2013, Mr. Ortega, a left-wing guerrilla turned pro-business politician, promised that the canal would transformNicaragua and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, eventually doubling the country’s gross domestic product. Many Nicaraguans, eager for a better future, embraced the idea, and many still do.
But a growing number say the benefits of the deal are not so clear.
Some question whether the canal would even be commercially viable. Few supertankers and massive container ships now afloat will not be able to pass through the expanded Panama Canal set to open soon. And few ports are big enough to welcome those megaships. In the short term, some experts say, the combination of the Panama and Nicaragua canals would lead to overcapacity and price wars.
There are also concerns about the seismic activity in the area, or the many volcanos. Some analysts point to China’s poor record on environmental matters and Mr. Wang’s inexperience in building anything, let alone a $50 billion (some say $80 billion) canal carving through miles of protected areas that are home to many endangered species, including the jaguar, and legally recognized indigenous lands. The little-known Mr. Wang made his fortune in telecommunications, not in construction.
And then there is the 50-mile trench to be dug on the floor of Lake Nicaragua, the largest body of fresh water in Central America — which many fear could end up contaminating, even killing, the lake.
Economists and human rights activists also object to the powers Mr. Wang has to expropriate land at far less than market rates, saying the terms of Mr. Wang’s concession could discourage anyone else from investing in Nicaragua.
HONDURAS
NICARAGUA
Route of
proposed canal
Managua
Lake
Nicaragua
Brito
Caribbean
Sea
Pacific Ocean
COSTA
RICA
100 MILES
That aspect has prompted protests from farmers, some of which have turned violent. Experts say Mr. Wang will have to pay only the assessed value, or about 5 percent of the market value, for any lands he takes. But many farmers would not be entitled to even that. In a country that is short of adequate roads and government offices, many do not have formal title to the fields they have cultivated for generations.
Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the general director of theFunides research institute, who has come out against the canal, said the agreement with Mr. Wang, rushed through Parliament and enshrined in the Constitution, effectively made no landowner safe anywhere in the country.
“In theory, if Mr. Wang wanted to take this building we are sitting in right now for his project, he could,” Mr. Chamorro said, his hand sweeping across his office in downtown Managua, the capital. “Who would want to buy or build here with that possibility hanging over their heads?”
Mr. Chamorro said that the majority of the construction jobs would not go to Nicaraguans and that Panama did not become prosperous until it won control of its canal. That is unlikely to happen here for 100 years, according to the agreement with Mr. Wang, which he can sell to a third party.
Under the current plan, the canal would begin along a stretch of pristine beach in Brito, then cut through Lake Nicaragua, which, with two volcanoes rising out of it, is one of the country’s major tourist destinations. It would reach the Caribbean coast by cutting through the land of the Rama and Kriol people, in areas that are not accessible by road right now.
But the plan is much broader than just a canal. Mr. Wang’s vision includes new airports, new ports on both ends of the canal, new lakes in the mountains to make sure the canal has enough water, and new islands in Lake Nicaragua to dispose of excavated sediment and rock.
A 1,100-page study of the project, conducted by the British consulting firm ERM and issued five months ago, reinforced the notion of how much is at stake. It recommended further studies in many areas before going forward and noted that a wide range of mitigation efforts would be needed, like reforestation and job training.
Some see hope in those efforts. Jeffrey McCrary, an American fish biologist who lives in Nicaragua and worked on the study, supports the project, saying Mr. Wang’s company will have to provide money to clean up environmental damage already caused by deforestation, poor land management, crop fumigation and general dumping into Lake Nicaragua.
“I’ve seen that lake, and it is in miserable shape,” he said. “Are we going to kill a lot of fish to build the canal? Yeah, we are. But without the canal, I think we are doomed.”
Kamilo Lara, a member of the Nicaragua Canal Commission, a group appointed by the government to oversee the project, said many critics of the project were political opportunists. Mr. Lara said the canal plan had been adjusted to deal with problem issues, like potential earthquakes, tsunamis and environmental concerns. And people who might be displaced by it, he said, could be moved to small cities with new schools and services they never had before.
“I have been to China,” he said. “I saw the incredible capital they have to invest.”
In answers to written questions, Pang Kwok Wai, the executive vice president of Mr. Wang’s company, the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company, said Mr. Wang was in talks with potential investors and would announce progress “in due form.” He said Mr. Wang had already invested about $500 million of his own money.
Mr. Pang also said the company, though not obligated to do so, would pay market rates for the land it wanted. “We are in Nicaragua to bring progress and play a fair game,” he said.
In the meantime, speculating about the canal has become a national pastime, though polls show that Nicaraguans grow less inclined to believe that it will be built.
“We used to talk about it every day,” said Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of Confidencial, an investigative magazine. “Now we only talk about it every two days.”
Some still hope it will lift this country out of poverty.
But in Brito and the nearby city of Rivas, those who expect to be displaced are angry. Teresa de Jesus Henriquez Delgado, 31, is one of the residents who used a stencil to paint “Go Away Chinese!” on the outside of her house.
“I will resist with all of my strength when the bulldozers come to tear down my house,” she said. “I will fight until I die. I have to for my children. They can’t take this land from my family.”
Captura de peces en la Laguna de Masaya realizada por Gaia y el equipo del Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya. Foto Marten Hogencamp.
Nicaragua es un país bendecido por sus recursos acuáticos como casi ningún otro.
Sin embargo, el manejo de estos recursos ha sido fenomenalmente malo, desde
hace muchas décadas atrás. Xolotlán (también conocido como Lago Managua) ahora
se clasifica como hipertrófico, es decir la población bacteriana figura muy
fuerte en la ecología del lago. Está con enormes cantidades de sedimentos de
todas las cuencas que se dirigen al lago, donde el manejo de tierras no ha
prevenido la erosión de suelo ni la retención de agua en los acuíferos
subacuáticos para el uso humano. No obstante, un siglo atrás, este lago
abastecía a los Managuas y muchas otras comunidades con agua potable. Notables
cantidades de residuos sólidos municipales entran sin ningún impedimento durante
cad alluvia mediante grandes cauces que atraviesan la capital. Los sedimentos
en el fondo del lago se encuentran contaminados con químicos industriales y
agroquímicos.
Estarán claras las aguas de la Laguna de Apoyo siempre?
El Lago Cocibolca (también llamado Lago Nicaragua) sufre el mismo proceso de contaminación que el Xolotlán,
aunque sus cambios han sido más lentos, debido al gran tamaño del lago, una salida caudalosa, y la dicha de no estar en la orilla de
Managua, donde volúmenes desmedidos de
desechos se generan. Los cultivos de arroz ocupan fumigación aérea, las ciudades en la cuenca tienen poca capacidad de gestión de aguas servidas.
Las lagunas
cratéricas, ubicadas en los conos de numerosos volcanes en Nicaragua, también
se encuentran en crises, hasta los ríos que sufren por el mal manejo de los
bosques en su orilla, y la introducción de suelos en el río desde fincas, minas
y ciudades.
Aquí se
presenta en dos partes un video elaborado por nuestros amigos sobre el manejo de las aguas naturales en
Nicaragua. Entre las lagunas en riesgo se encuentra la Laguna de Apoyo, ahora un foco de turismo muy fuerte; Laguna de Nejapa, que se encuentra casi seca; Laguna Masaya, afectada por desechos sólidos y aguas residuales de la ciudad de Masaya. Algunos aspectos de los problemas de agua se encuentran en el siguiente video, dividido en dos partes, elaborado por Fundación Luciérniga. Les invitamos a considerarlo.
Un factor que hace tan difícil la contaminación de las aguas naturales, es que no se encuentra un individuo o grupo pequeño como culpable. Los responsables de la contaminación de las aguas son muchos, o más bien somos todos. La falta de existencia de políticas públicas que pueden proteger a las aguas trasciende generaciones y gobiernos desde la extrema izquierda hasta la extrema derecha. Una conversación largo para planificar las acciones necesarias para proteger a nuestras aguas es necesario. Quieres participar en el cuido de nuestras aguas?
Colombus and other early explorers to the Americas came in search of a passage to the Pacific Ocean which would permit water access to east Asia. This link counted among the inspirations of diverse adventurers in the Central American isthmus, from Cortes to Humboldt. In fact, Lake Nicaragua, also known as Lake Cocibolca, was repeatedly investigated for the possibilities of a direct water link to the Pacific coast.
The shifts in global economies did not lay the issue to rest. Humans had great interest in moving by water from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and vice versa. The Spanish empire, obliged to trek gold eastward by mule from Peru, dedicated many resources to transoceanic route possibilities, followed in the postcolonial period by other powerful European and US efforts to open a canal. Nicaragua became the principal focus of these efforts, given the natural advantages its topography offered.
Even without a canal, interoceanic travel in Nicaragua spiked during the middle of the nineteenth century, fueled by the massive human movement toward California during the Gold Rush. Cornelius Vanderbilt developed a system of transport along the San Juan River, across Lake Nicaragua, and then by land to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast, which benefited thousands of travelers who wished to circumvent the conflicts between whites and indigenous people along the Great Plains. Mark Twain documented the reverse journal with ample detail on Nicaragua in his Travels with Mr. Brown.
History was written with the production of a canal across the Central American isthmus, but in Panama rather than in Nicaragua. But this did not end the ambitions of some to create another canal in Nicaragua. Analyses continued through the twentieth century, as pressure continually rose on the already existing Panama Canal's limited capacity in terms of water to move ships and its limited size. As the Panama Canal widened, ever larger ships could pass, yet an entire class of cargo ship was still left isolated from easy movement between the oceans. A further widening of the Panama canal is simply not feasible.
Undoubtedly, the world would benefit from another, wider canal, built closer to the US, in which transportation costs for many products could be dramatically lowered and greenhouse gas emissions could be cut. For this reason, near the end of the twentieth century, the Nicaraguan government and civil society developed feasibility studies for potential canal routes in Nicaragua, ranging from a "dry canal" consisting essentially of two ports connected by a highway transited by hundreds or thousands of container trucks or a train, to a dug canal crossing Lake Nicaragua at some point.
The canal is now closer than ever a reality. A concession has been awarded to HKND, a venture capital firm located in Hong Kong. Although official canal construction has not begun, an Environmental and Social Impact Study, produced by ERM, has been reviewed and accepted in Nicaragua, which has provided a conceptual approval but many additional studies are pending.
GAIA scientists Jeffrey McCrary and Pablo Somarriba participated in the field studies and analyses for this study, moving throughout the route. Dr. McCrary composed several sections of the extensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. As the study progressed, several points of discussion emerged among the public, as well. Although some aspects of the pending canal have been defined, many important aspects must be resolved. GAIA scientists continue to participate in discussions regarding the canal with HKND, the Nicaraguan government, and the civil society, to assure that each anticipated impact and risk be resolved. This is a gargantuan task, for a project which promises to be the largest of its kind in the world, in a country as poor and marginalized as Nicaragua, and crossing such precious natural resources as Lake Nicaragua.
Lake Nicaragua with storms on the horizon. Photo Jeffrey McCrary.
Numerous arguments have been made to question the viability of a canal in Nicaragua, particularly the concession given to HKND. Some of the issues have been of an environmental nature, such as the emminent, total destruction of hundreds of thousands of hectares of tropical forests and wetlands, as was alleged by Jorge Huete and Axel Meyer in Nature. GAIA scientist Jeffrey McCrary participated with other Nicaraguan scientists to rebut this position in separate communication in Nature. The differences in opinion between different members of the scientific community in Nicaragua and a few people such as Jorge Huete was later revealed in further detail in an interview in Global Construction Review, another in a Swedish journal, and finally, an investigative report in Science.
Richard Condit from the Smithsonian Institution in Panama wrote a article in PLoS Biology, in which he discusses the possibilities that a canal in Nicaragua can mean, given the century of experience in the Panama Canal.
While everyone is concerned about the effects of the Nicaragua Canal on water pollution and effects on nature, others see these problems as technical, with solutions within the grasp of those pretending to undertake such a large project. Differences of opinion about the canal abound, but a few things are certain. The Nicaragua Grand Oceanic Canal could be made wrong, and the economy and environment could suffer by water pollution and various other possible calamities. Another scenario is also looming, however, where things are done right and Nicaragua gains, along with the entire planet. It is a big project, and demands a great deal of attention, but it also holds great promise.
One of the great natural sites of Nicaragua is Lake Cocibolca, also called Lake Nicaragua. Formed a half-million years ago by a depression in the recently-connected Mesoamerican isthmus, this lake is a fundamental component of the economy and culture of the Nicaraguan people.
Whistling Tree-Ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) take their clutch of hatchlings for a swim in Lake Cocibolca.
Cocibolca is among the largest freshwater lakes in the world. There are many important wetlands around the lake and its tributaries. Fish and birds inhabiting Lake Cocibolca and its surrounds are abundant and diverse. The lake was vital to the precolombian people of the zone, with numerous population centers all along its shores. The name Cocibolca comes from the Nahuatl language, but cultural hegemony of the Spanish-speaking settlers led to such severe disregard for the culture and language of the locals that we no longer know what the name means, precisely. One theory is that it means the larger of the twin lakes, the lesser being Xolotlán.
Olivaceous cormorants (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) move around throughout Lake Cocibolca and inhabit special places such as Isla Zapote in the Solentinmane Archipielago.
Lake Cocibolca is facing huge threats to its health. Nicaragua is notorious for poor management of its aquatic natural resources. Many natural water sources in Nicaragua have already been declared contaminated. Lake Xolotlán, for example, has an extremely high level of contamination from municipal wastewater discharged, untreated, directly into the lake for a century. It also has tons of mercury from a poorly operated chemical facility.
Lake Cocibolca is expansive, giving the impression of an ocean from many perspectives. The locals have given it the name, "La Mar Dulce", or the freshwater sea.
Several municipal wastewater discharges into Lake Cocibolca are now getting some level of treatment and control. The quantities of contaminants from the general population are dropping, but still at levels that warrant concern. Among the officially listed potential uses of the lake resources is potable water, although no major community gets its water here, yet.
Storm clouds accumulate over Lake Cocibolca.
More destructive is the vast erosion throughout the watershed of the lake, consisting principally of cattle farms. Soil conservation practices such as ample levels of shade on pasture, gallery forest throughout river edges, and terracing or forest cover on steep slopes, are basically absent in all the farms. Use of pesticides such as ivermectin, for parasite control on cows, and defoliants is universal, and the tools for application are almost always washed directly into the rivers feeding the lake. Almost all pastures are burned at the end of the dry season, promoting a huge pulse of soils and nutrients into the lake at the first rains. Furthermore, agriculture such as rice is grown around the lake, and aerial fumigation dumps thousands of pounds of destructive pesticides each year.
An important aspect of Lake Cocibolca is the hundreds of small islands found throughout it.
The vastness of the lake means that all these factors have not yet added up to destroy the lake, but like wolves at the door. As in much of the rest of the world, Nicaragua is facing water issues as the most important single conflictive issue of the 21st century. Many practices in the past and present are no longer viable, given ever-greater demands on water and threats that no one ever anticipated. The sense that Lake Nicaragua is pristine and a natural paradise still exists. All visitors to the country should take advantage of opportunities to experience Cocibolca. Its shores, islands, fish and the nature are remarkable. The cities such as Granada, San Jorge, San Carlos and San Miguelito all give great views of the lake, and many islands are worth a visit, from Zapatera to Ometepe and the Solentiname Archipielago.
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Estacion Biologica volunteer Florian Schmid recently spent a week participating in a very noble project, to provide better library resources to the children in a rural school in Merida, Ometepe Island. This island consists of two volcanos, Maderas and Concepcion, in near the western shore of Lake Nicaragua, also known as Lake Cocibolca. The inhabitants of Ometepe, the largest island found in a freshwater lake on the entire planet, are distant from "civilization", and they have few resources to learn the things we city folks may take for granted. An environmental activist group from the National Agrarian University organized a series of activities to raise funds to provide books and supplies for these children. They sent a few hundred books to the school, and engaged the local children in several activities.
Giselle greets the students of Merida, Ometepe Island. Photo by Florian Schmid.
Jessi installs the books in their new shelves in the Merida school library. Photo by Florian Schmid.
The group of volunteers held guided discussions with the young people of Merida on a variety of environmental themes. Photo by Florian Schmid.
There was time for some dancing! Photo by Florian Scmid.
Physical activities were enjoyed as well as intellectual activities. Photo by Florian Schmid.
Lots of smiles! Photo by Florian Scmid.
Big-screen movies are rare in Ometepe Island, so there was a crowd for this showing! Photo by Florian Schmid.
The cruise back to the mainland from Ometepe Island was risky, but all made it home alive, thanks to the concentrated efforts of the captain. Photo by Florian Schmid.
All children deserve a happy childhood, filled with opportunities to do and to learn, and books are an essential component. Florian and the group from UNA have made a difference in the childhood of some children in Ometepe. If you would like to support causes such as this, contact us to learn of opportunities for donations and volunteer possibilities, too. Thank you for caring about the children of Nicaragua!
Para los que prefieren leerlo en espanol, aqui repetimos un recorte de un blog sobre desarrollo rural en Mexico, donde aparece el debate sobre la conflictiva tilapia. Este capitulo del debate se inicio con un articulo en el New York Times. Es interesante que este tema tome vuelo en un pais donde se ha sembrado tilapias en muchisimas aguas naturales. Para leer el blog, haga clic aqui.
El Pez Global Tiene Lado Oscuro
14 Mayo 2011
ELISABETH ROSENTHAL. NEW YORK TIMES. Una historia bíblica muy conocida cuenta que Jesús alimentó a 5 mil personas con cinco panes y dos peces, los cuales, conjeturan los académicos, eran tilapias.
Sin embargo, en la granja de peces Aquafinca, en Agua Azul, un milagro moderno ocurre diariamente: decenas de miles de tilapias carnosas, aleteando al salir del agua, son sacadas de jaulas atestadas en el Lago de Yojoa, convertidas en filetes en un rastro frío y rápidamente llevadas a aviones con destino a Estados Unidos, donde algunas harán su aparición en platos en espacio de 12 horas.
Los estadounidenses comieron 215 millones de kilos de tilapia el año pasado, cuatro veces más que hace una década, lo que convierte a esta variedad nativa de África, antes poco conocida, en el pez de granja más popular en EU. Aunque los peces salvajes predominan en casi todas las especies, la enorme mayoría de la tilapia consumida es "cosechada" de corrales o jaulas en Latinoamérica y Asia.
Conocida en la industria alimenticia como "pollo acuático" porque se reproduce con facilidad y tiene un sabor insípido, la tilapia es el pez de granja perfecto; come con gusto bolitas cuyos ingredientes principales son maíz y soya, y engorda con rapidez, lo que convierte facilmente una dieta semejante a alimento barato para pollos en un marisco de bajo costo.
La tilapia de granja es promovida como buena para la salud y el medio ambiente, en un momento cuando muchas poblaciones marinas se han visto muy reducidas. Comparada con otros peces, sin embargo, la tilapia de granja contiene cantidades relativamente pequeñas de ácidos grasos omega-3, los aceites de pescado que son la principal razón por la que los médicos recomiendan comer pescado con frecuencia; el salmón contiene más de 10 veces la cantidad de omega-3 que la tilapia.
"Puede parecer pescado y saber a pescado, pero no tiene los beneficios; podría ser perjudicial", expresó Floyd Chilton, profesor de fisiología y farmacología en el Centro Médico Bautista de la Universidad Wake Forest, en Winston-Salem, Carolina del Norte. Los defensores de la acuicultura de tilapia señalan que esta industria joven y en rápido crecimiento ha empezado a mejorar sus estándares.
El Aquaculture Stewardship Council, creado por el organismo de conservación Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza (WWF) e IDH, programa de comercio sustentable holandés, está en proceso de iniciar un programa de inspección para las granjas de tilapia. Las aprobadas recibirán etiquetas que identifican sus peces como "criados con responsabilidad".
Aquafinca se ha convertido en la primera en aprobar una inspección.
Nativa de los lagos africanos, la tilapia fue empleada en muchos países tropicales pobres en la segunda mitad del siglo 20 para controlar la maleza y los mosquitos.
Esa "tal vez no fue la mejor idea", dijo Aaron McNevin, biólogo del WWF quien trabaja en normas para las granjas de tilapia, porque "es una de las especies más invasivas conocidas y es muy difícil erradicarla una vez que está establecida".
Para los 90, los negocios vieron una oportunidad en la cría en granja de esta robusta especie. A través de la reproducción selectiva, los científicos crearon las variedades industriales de la actualidad: peces grandes y carnosos con cabezas y colas diminutas e intestinos que les permiten absorber los alimentos más rápido.
La tilapia de granja alcanza su peso de venta de alrededor de un kilo tras aproximadamente nueve meses de alimentación intensiva.
Para los consumidores que compran tilapia de China, Honduras o Ecuador, hay poca orientación.
"Es tan complicado para los consumidores decidir qué comer, ahora que la producción de la acuicultura está en tan rápida expansión", señaló Peter Bridson, gerente de investigación de la acuicultura del Acuario de la Bahía de Monterey, California.
El acuario produce la popular Seafood Watch, guía del consumidor independiente a cómo comprar pescado sustentable.
Por el momento, Seafood Watch califica la tilapia criada en EU como la "mejor opción", la de Latinoamérica como una "buena alternativa" y sobre la de China, dice que "debe evitarse". Bridson comentó que estos ratings aproximados se basaron, en gran medida, en la presencia de un monitoreo efectivo en esos sitios y en cómo se deshacían las granjas de sus desechos.
Sin embargo, a muchos biólogos les preocupa que el gran negocio de la cría de tilapia pese más que la cautela y deje lagos muertos y especies extintas.
Jeffrey McCrary, biólogo de peces, ha pasado la última década estudiando cómo una pequeña granja de tilapia de corta existencia degradó el Lago Apoyo en Nicaragua.
"Una pequeña jaula echó a perder el lago entero, ¡todo el lago!", dijo de la granja, que operó de 1995 al 2000.
Los desechos de las jaulas contaminaron el ecosistema, y algunas tilapias se escaparon. Una planta acuática llamada chara, alimento importante para los peces, desapareció y eso dejó al lago convertido en un páramo. Hoy en día, algunas especies de plantas y peces se recuperan lentamente, pero es probable que otras se hayan perdido para siempre, mencionó McCrary, quien trabaja para la fundación FUNDECI nicaragüense.
Salvador Montenegro, director del Centro para la Investigación en Recursos Acuáticos de Nicaragua, ha pasado una década en la lucha por cerrar la granja de tilapia Nicanor en el Lago de Nicaragua, porque, dijo: "pone en peligro un lago que es un tesoro nacional".
Los peces más débiles, como el róbalo arco iris, han empezado a desaparecer del lago.
Sin embargo, David Senna, gerente de Nicanor, aseguró que las jaulas empleadas por la compañía ocupan sólo una fracción minúscula del lago, en un área con corrientes lo suficientemente fuertes para llevarse los desechos de los peces.
Para los médicos, el debate se ha centrado en el valor nutritivo de la tilapia. Bruce Holub, profesor de ciencia nutricional en la Universidad de Guelph, en Ontario, dijo que la tilapia es una fuente de proteína y contiene algo de omega-3.
Sin embargo, a otros les preocupan las investigaciones que muestran que la cantidad de otro tipo de ácidos grasos, los omega-6, es mayor que los benéficos omega-3 en la tilapia de granja en una proporción de 2 a 1. Algunas investigaciones sugieren que dicha proporción incrementa el riesgo de cardiopatía.
Gran parte de la tilapia en los mercados mundiales proviene de China, cuyas granjas de peces son consideradas mal reguladas.
China exporta los peces congelados y empacados en monóxido de carbono para preservar su color y apariencia fresca cuando son descongelados para la venta al menudeo.
"La gente quería pagar alrededor de 8 dólares por kilo de este pescado congelado, en lugar de alrededor de 12 dólares por el fresco, especialmente durante la recesión", dijo Senna. Es por la mala regulación de las granjas chinas, señaló Bridson, que la industria necesita normas más claras.
Hasta entonces, el producto más barato ganará.
"Si tengo 100 tilapias en un estanque, puede que sean tilapias felices porque tienen espacio para nadar, pero no podré venderlas debido a que no tendré acceso al mercado global", expresó McCrary.
Blake Schmidt contribuyó con reportes desde Managua, Nicaragua.
