The person who was arrested in May this year for running excursions catching stingrays and sharks on Lanzarote has been sentenced to ten months in prison and banned from fishing for sixteen months.
In May this year, the person in charge of a fishing excursion company on Lanzarote was arrested by the Guardia Civil for crimes against wildlife, after they were found to have been organising trips to catch stingrays and sharks.
The investigation began after the Guardia Civil were alerted to a post on social media which advertised a fishing excursion on Lanzarote, in which the company offered the chance to catch protected species.
The company owner had been denounced by environmental protection associations, which showed that numerous sharks and stingrays (some of which are endangered) had been caught and photographed.
The person advertised the excursions as a tourist activity, catching “XXL monsters.”
The sentence, issued on November 3rd, states that the fisherman would sail along the coast of Playa Blanca catching different sharks (which are prohibited) as well as stingrays (also prohibited.)
Environmental organisations that denounced the fisherman at the time have stressed that unregulated and unreported fishing should be fought relentlessly by increasing surveillance on the coast.
Both organisations stressed that “tourism and leisure activities cannot and should never be promoted through practises that destroy or degrade Canarian wildlife, either at sea or on land.”
The fisherman has since been sentenced to ten months in prison and banned from fishing for sixteen months.
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