The war between the barnacle and the mussel that has been shaking the Galician coast for more than three years is getting worse and more complicated. These are probably the two most emblematic species of the Galician coast. The barnacle stands out for its qualitative value, as a delicacy, with very high prices, but with a low volume of business. The relevance of the mussel is quantitative, since Galicia is one of the world's largest producers. The battle for control of the cliffs is waged by the barnacles and the bateeiros, which is how the mussel fishermen are known. The key lies in the cheek, the mussel seed, which is on the edges.
The Xunta first changed the rules of the traditional game, amid the wrath of the bateeiros, by establishing exclusive barnacle production zones for just over two years along some 50 kilometers of coastline. This year he cut them by about half, putting the barnacles on the warpath without their opponents burying the hatchet. “To govern is to discontent”, affirmed the legendary Portuguese socialist Mário Soares. From this point of view, the Ministry of the Sea would have achieved the ideal, by angering the two parties in the dispute. However, the management has been erratic, without reaching the consensus demanded by parliamentary unanimity, the technical reports used are controversial and there has been a lack of transparency prior to making key decisions.
The conflict gives the impression of having overwhelmed the minister, Rosa Quintana, the only one who survived the entire term of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, from 2009 to 2023, together with the now president, Alfonso Rueda. She came to be cornered by the bateeiros in an act in Vilagarcía. And in the middle of the municipal pre-campaign, discontent within the party emerged, with mayors and candidates from the affected areas against the ministry. She defends herself by brandishing the history of countless meetings, with decisions based on technical reports and the fact that she is the councilor of the two species.
It all started with a section of article 13 of a decree of the Ministry of the Sea of 2019 in which it was planned to establish exclusive areas for the collection of barnacles. The Xunta thus responded to the demands of this sector, which denounced that when extracting the cheek, the rocks and their valuable product were also removed. The mussel farmers warned that the viability of their prosperous sector was endangered, which requires the seed to carry out production on the rafts, the wooden platforms so characteristic of the estuaries.
Each sector has its own epic, with the plastic photographs of the barnacles frequently risking their lives on the cliffs in the middle of the strong waves and the image of the bateeiros, together with other sea professionals, collecting the fuel from the Prestige with their hands to prevent it from entering the Arousa estuary and contaminating its precious production. It reaches turnovers of around 150 million euros per year, more than fifteen times those of the barnacle, while the differences in employment, although highly controversial, reach smaller magnitudes.
There have been conflict situations, in which the Civil Guard has had to intervene. And the two contestants exchange strong accusations. Thus, from the side of the bateeiros it is affirmed that the problem of the barnacle lies in poor management and poaching, without the extraction of the cheek actually harming them, while warning that the future of a key sector in the economy is in danger Galician. The percebeiros denounce environmental damage due to the massive production of the mussel and insist that the bateeiros have alternatives to obtain the seed that they lack. They talk about a black market.
As the bateeiros have already done on several occasions, the barnacles are going to go to court and demonstrate on Saturday in Santiago, while their opponents continue to demand the total annulment of the exclusion zones. The cliffs roar, not just from the waves.
