There is a bastard fish that comes from fish farms and is devastating the Maspalomas Pond. The technicians remain silent due to business pressures and the politicians say nothing because of the supposed employment they generate on the islands. In reality, the fish farms are in Tirajana due to tax incentives, as happens with certain planned theme parks, that is, you pay for them to do business and hire workers through employment programs. In short: what happens is that they offer low taxes and low salaries so that foreign companies can arrive and, in turn, generate environmental problems. Then, those who offer tax incentives and cheap employment look to Brussels for public money to compensate for environmental damage by generating employment with endless biodiversity projects.
The problem is called Mozambique tilapia and it lives in the Maspalomas Pond and not because of climate change. This fish is one of the 100 species that have demonstrated the greatest invasive potential of all the species that populate the planet. It is a species widely used in fish farms due to its rapid growth, tolerance to high population densities and few dietary restrictions. It is omnivorous: it can feed on algae as well as other fish and small birds found around the Pond. It can also become cannibalistic if food availability becomes a problem.
The captures of individuals of this species in the Maspalomas Pond are carried out by placing pots inside the Pond. The first captures have revealed the real dimension of the problem and that is that, when lifting the pots, there were only tilapia inside, which suggests that they have wiped out the 11 species of fish that lived in the Pond. There are also reasons to think that they have also wiped out all aquatic vegetation. Some of the catches are sent to the Taliarte Marine Science-Technology Park for study and the rest are delivered for disposal to the authorized management company Sandach. This control action on the Mozambique tilapia is within the framework of the actions to improve the biodiversity of the La Charca de Maspalomas Reserve. These focus on the control of invasive exotic species of flora and fauna within the Reserve and began in the summer of 2017.