Fishing

Something strange happens with recreational bluefin tuna fishing in Spain. And yes, ‘rare’ in this headline means (presumably) ‘fraud’

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In Spain, recreational bluefin tuna fishing has many rules and regulations, but there is something essential that starts from the same name: it is (and should be) ‘recreational’. That is, Spanish rules only allow the capture and release of Thunnus thynnus. And yet, the quota of accidental deaths (about 39.9 tons in 2025) is being exhausted very quickly (It lasted three days that same 2025). That is to say, (according to the available data) almost all the tunas that get hooked at the beginning of the closed season end up dead. Spanish fishermen They are unable to return almost any of them alive.. It’s already bad luck. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, they return up to 99%. It’s not a fish story. Although it may seem like it, this is not about fish, no. It involves mandatory training, required equipment, handling protocols and, above all, effective control. Although it may not seem like it, this is about how it is possible for two European countries to produce such radically different results. And, above all, it is about how we can solve it. Because it is undeniable that we have a problem. It makes no sense that recreational fishing in Spain has become a race to go fishing first. In the last five years, the longest effective fishing season was seven days in 2021. That is to say, it took the fishermen a week to accidentally kill so many tuna that the fishery was over. In 2022 and 2023 there were five days and In the following years, three. 75% of last year’s accidents, by the way, took place in the Valencian Community. With tougher regulations, this does not happen. It is true, however, that the data is somewhat unfair. While Spain has 1,900 special licenses, the United Kingdom has with barely 81 boats with active permits. That, whether we like it or not, simplifies things. But it’s not just a question of size. It is, above all, a question of why The reason the British system is different is also interesting: until a handful of years ago (about 2017) there was no bluefin tuna in its waters. There was nothing to fish. Since then it has started to come back (as It has happened with many other species) and the authorities were able to create a more guaranteeing system without the pressure of an already consolidated industry. Hence a smaller number of boats, the specific training of skippers and, above all, the boats are obliged to have independent observers and cameras to record what happens inside (at least, with new skippers). So there is no hope? Something is being done and it is good to recognize it: this January it came into force a regulation that tries to digitize the capture record and close the “statistical black hole”. The experts are worse They are not very optimistic either.. They fear that in this context (three days of closure and an implicit mortality that is around 100%), it is clear that recreational pressure is only going to complicate things. And, in the end, the solution will only come when the current system bursts at the seams. It is not an anomaly: we are specialists in it. The good news and the bad news are the same: that this is going to happen soon. Image | Aristos Aristidou | Jordan Whitfield In Xataka | Spain is going to continue fishing for eels until we have no more eels to catch

China has concentrated thousands of fishing boats off Japan, and its idea is not to fish

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The East China Sea is one of the more sensitive scenarios of the strategic balance in Asia for decades. territorial disputes, historical rivalries and the growing weight of new powers have turned these waters into a space where every movement is observed with a magnifying glass. There, apparently minor gestures usually fit into dynamic much deeperand China has just made a move. The diplomatic fuse. Japan’s detention of a chinese fishing boat within its exclusive economic zone, about 170 kilometers from Nagasaki, has rekindled a relationship already deteriorated between Tokyo and Beijing, with a certain island as a backdrop. He captain’s arrestafter refusing an inspection, occurs in a context of growing dispute marked by Japanese statements on Taiwan and the subsequent Chinese warnings its citizens to avoid traveling to Japan. Therefore, it is not an isolated episode, but rather the visible spark of a maritime tension that had been building for weeks. Images from space. AIS system data and the images by satellite show unprecedented concentrations of up to 2,000 fishing boats Chinese aligned near the median line between the two countries in the East China Sea. The formations, hundreds of kilometers long and with vessels separated by less than 500 meters, remained more than 24 hours in static positions despite adverse weather conditions. In other words, China was concentrating thousands of fishing boats off Japan, and its idea is not exactly to fish. The maritime militia and the “gray zone”. They counted on Nikkei that the vast majority of these fishing vessels are part of the so-called chinese maritime militiaa civil network that cooperates with the State and the Army in operations that do not reach the threshold of armed conflict. A priori, this strategy allows pressure to be exerted without formally deploying naval forces, thus making a direct response difficult. In other words, as we count A few weeks ago, what was presented as economic activity could become a test of maritime control or even the interruption of trade routes in the first island chain. Taiwan as a backdrop. Impossible to ignore it. The maneuvers coincide with statements by the Japanese government warning that a crisis in the Taiwan Strait would be an existential threat for Japan. Beijing, for its part, considers the island part of its territory and does not rule out the use of forcewhile Tokyo reinforces its deterrent posture. In this context, each movement in the East China Sea takes on a meaning that goes beyond fishing and is integrated into the regional strategic calculation. A pattern of sustained pressure. Furthermore, the activity is not limited to civil fleets. I remembered the Guardian that the Chinese coast guard has broken presence records around to the Senkaku Islandsalso known as Diaoyu in China, and has released images of patrols in disputed waters for the first time. Plus: the Liaoning aircraft carrier has expanded its radius of operations near Okinawa, while Beijing advances infrastructure on its side of the maritime median line. More than boats, an essay. Analysts interpret these concentrations like exercises of mobilization and coordination within the civil-military fusion plan promoted by Beijing. There is no doubt, the capacity of gather thousands of boats civilians at a strategic point in a short time sends a fairly clear message about the possibility of, for example, saturating maritime spaces without openly resorting to force. In this way, the pulse is no longer so much or only bilateral, but rather a warning to the entire region: China is perfecting tools to shape the balance of the Indo-Pacific, and it is doing so without firing a single shot. Image | Planet Labs, Marine Traffic, Anna Frodesiak, Micromesistius In Xataka | China’s best weapon doesn’t fire a single bullet: 300km ‘moving wall’ to close sea routes instantly In Xataka | China has turned deep-sea salmon farming into an engineering feat. This state-of-the-art boat proves it

Spain is going to continue fishing for eels until we have no more eels to catch

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A few days ago, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge he took to the Wild Flora and Fauna Committee the proposal to include the European eel as “in danger of extinction” in the Spanish Catalog of Endangered Species. That, in practice, means prohibiting fishing and marketing. Also that of the eel, its juvenile phase. As expected, the world championship has been messed up. And not because there is debate on the topic. For many years, scientists They are clear that the eel is on the limit. In fact, there are many communities that already prohibit fishing (some for more than a decade). And yet most of it fell this Tuesday the proposal. Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Murcia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, where the species is exploited, have voted against. Others such as Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, Extremadura, Aragón, Castilla y León, Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia have abstained. It is the third failed attempt after those in 2020 and 2024. This has many readings, but the most obvious is simple: as Miguel Clavero says“Spain will continue fishing for eels until they become extinct.” It is also the most realistic. Because yes, a working group has been created between the Ministry and the CCAA to share data and discuss measures; but experts assume that it is just a way to save time. The thing is, it’s time we don’t have. And why isn’t eel fishing prohibited? The economic context is also simple: this fish moves little volume, but a lot of value. This is a premium product that generates a lot of money. For this reason, the sector is only willing to accept temporary moratoriums (such as this year in Euskadi), despite the fact that since the 60s the population has fallen by more than 90%. A problem that is also European. And that’s the other part of the problem, of course: lgovernance is fragmentedthe decline It is multifactorial (fishing, yes; but also river barriers, pollution, loss of habitats…) and the ‘revival’ of anti-scientific discourses when they touch the pocket. And without meaning to, that is what has turned this issue into a central issue for the entire European continent. After all, the extinction of the European eel is the chronicle of a death foretold. But also a portrait of our helplessness, of our inability to conserve what is valuable in our rivers. It is a portrait of ourselves. Image | Phil Robston In Xataka | China has mobilized 1,400 fishing boats to create a 300-kilometer “barrier.” Not good news for Taiwan

a Great Wall of fishing barges

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A silent war is being fought in the South China Sea. No weapons are fired, but they are constantly mobilized huge warshipspatrol boats and experimental missile launch platforms. The area is a hotbed in which China claims Japanese and Taiwanese territories as its own, but among so much military maneuver, the movement that China made in mid-January: Hundreds of fishing boats marched to create an artificial reef. It is the ‘Great Fishing Wall’, and the curious thing is that it has not been an isolated event. what has happened. It happened last January 11. In a report of The New York Timesit was exposed how at least 1,400 Chinese fishing boats abandoned their usual tasks to group together in a highly coordinated manner at a midpoint between China and Japan. The result was a ‘wall’ about 300 kilometers long and with a density that forced some transport ships that had to cross the area to carry out maneuvers to avoid or, directly, go around. January 9 | Image from The New York Times January 11 | Image from The New York Times It’s not the first time. The fishing choreography is impressive from a satellite view, but the most curious thing is that the January 11 maneuver was not an isolated event. It has been repeated on at least one occasion. Specifically, on Christmas Day 2025, when more than 2,000 ships gathered to form an inverse “L”. The long “wall” was also located between China and Japan, but the shorter wall was planted at a point that created a division between Taiwan and the mainland’s most important ports. In the NYT article, the analysts consulted they point They had already seen some similar unusual maneuvers, but on a scale of a couple of hundred ships, never something as massive as the operations of December 25 and January 11. Christmas Operation | Image from The New York Times Because. China has been seeking for years to consolidate its control over a large part of that maritime territory. It seeks to legitimize its sovereignty over islands and reefs that Japan and Taiwan They maintain that they are theirs property as part of the “historical territory”. To apply pressure, from time to time China takes its warships out for a walksomething to which Japan also responds with their own (even with plans to rearm as they had not done since World War II). Another way to mark muscle is through dozens of artificial islands that China has been building for decadesand all to ensure strategic trade routes and reinforce its position in the regional system, but also to exercise sovereignty in an area with valuable resources such as fishing (something that China needs like eating), the hydrocarbons and until rare earth (that China already dominatesbut you can always cover more in such a powerful strategic resource). The result is the militarization of that region, with a United States that has joined the ‘call’ seeking to prevent China from covering more than it currently has and taking off state-of-the-art weapons in collaboration with Japan. Maritime Militia. Two factors stand out in this story. The first is the speed at which the ships were organized and the precision with which they headed to the indicated point. The second is how effective the blocking is. Seeing that the transports had to avoid this fishing militia (which is a term that has been used before), in a crisis situation, China could mobilize hundreds of civilian ships to obstruct sea lanes, complicating military operations such as ship deployment and supply. Because the theory indicates that the enemy powers would not shoot at or run over those civilian ships. Lure. And, of course, American analysts have not missed the opportunity to give their vision. Thomas Shugart is a former US naval officer and noted that these masses of small ships could be more than just a blockade: They could act as decoys for missiles and torpedoes. Radars would be overwhelmed by a map full of small targets, camouflaging and protecting the real warships. They do not neglect military force. Faced with such a deployment, other analysts “praised” the coordination capacity to ensure that so many ships entered into a formation like the one seen on both dates and, as usual, China has not said anything about these maneuvers, but from the United States it has been verified that they were real ships, no false signs to confuse. And most importantly, the last maneuver occurred days after China completed some military maneuvers around Taiwan with the aim of blockading the island. Because, although the maneuver of thousands of fishing boats mounting a physical blockade is something striking, the South China Sea has witnessed several more serious movements by China in recent days. For example, it has been reported that The J-16s of the People’s Liberation Army have approached dangerously at Taiwanese F-16s, even launching flares when Taiwanese fighters were going to intercept them. Also the crossing of a red line by China when a military drone, for the first time, invaded Taiwan airspace. And all while the US is convinced that China is doing nuclear tests while calling for calm. The end, military maneuvers on the maritime border have been a constant for years, but the coordinated choreography of fishing boats can be a monumental headache if someone decides to attack civilian vessels, no matter how much they block critical routes. And it is something that seems like a brutal pressure weapon with which it is not necessary to fire a single shot to exert that influence. Images | Ernest Gunasekara-Rockwell In Xataka | China once again shows its spaceship worthy of ‘Star Wars’. It is so beast that it is impossible with current technology

a fishing rod and a car with missiles

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The drone war has become a volume war, and that forces Ukraine to find solutions that work not just once, but, if necessary, a hundred times a night: if Russia launches waves of Shaheds and decoy devices to saturate, the response cannot always depend on expensive missiles, heavy radars or scarce systems. The latest inventions are the best example. Creativity without luxury. What is emerging is a “field” air defense, mobile and pragmatic, where the decisive factor is not so much the perfect design but the capacity. to react quicklymove even faster and shoot down enough to keep the sky usable. In this framework, two apparently absurd ideas (a light car armed with missiles guided and an interceptor drone with what seems a fishing rod) are displaying an implacable logic: if the enemy turns the air into a highway of cheap threats, you turn the shootdown into a simple, repeatable and adaptable gesture. A buggy with missiles. The first surprise is a platform that seems more typical of an improvised patrol than an anti-aircraft battery: a light four-wheeled vehicle, an all-terrain buggy type, capable of moving through mud, open fields or roads and launch guided missiles from a rear-mounted dual launcher. Its value is not only in shooting, but in arriving on time: Shaheds fly above 160 km/h and the margin between detecting, positioning and shooting is minimal, so mobility becomes an operational survival condition. Instead of waiting for the drone, this air defense goes out to look for ithe places himself where he should, throws and moves again. That a single endowment has accumulated more than twenty demolitions suggests that, at least in certain sectors and windows, the system is functioning as a “rapid sky closure” tool, a type of anti-aircraft fighter that does not need large infrastructure to produce results. Hellfire on the ground. The most striking technical detail is the type of ammunition: due to its shape, the launcher is reminiscent of American Hellfiresmissiles originally designed for aerial platforms such as helicopters or armed drones, and which in advanced variants can act in “fire and forget” mode thanks to radar guidance. On paper, it is a huge leap compared to emergency solutions such as truck-mounted machine guns, which suffer when the enemy increases altitude, increases numbers and complicates engagement. But here it appears central tension of this war: shooting down a relatively cheap drone with a comparatively expensive missile is, in economic terms, an uncomfortable decision. Still, war is not decided by unit cost alone, but by the ability to prevent the enemy from hitting infrastructure, exhausting defenses, and normalizing damage. In some circumstances, pay more for each demolition may be rational if it avoids strategic impacts or preserves other critical munitions. The “fishing rod” The “fishing rod” in the sky. The second idea looks directly like a trench invention: an interceptor drone equipped with a protruding rod and a hanging thin rope, tensioned by a small weight, which is used to entangle the propellers of enemy quadcopter drones. In practice, the interceptor does not need to explode or land a perfect hit: he just needs to go over it, “comb” the target and let it the thread do the work dirty, turning physics into a weapon. If you like, it is an elegantly brutal response to a modern problem: when electronic warfare evolvesdrones become more resistant to the blockade and the jammingso the mechanics that cannot be “patched” with software gain value again. Tangle a propeller is the most direct way of telling a drone that it doesn’t matter how smart it is: without rotation, it will fall. Antijamming and the tangible. These tactics reflect a deeper adaptation: the battlefield is pushing both sides to combine electronic jamming with physical solutionsbecause the duel between countermeasures and counter-countermeasures no longer guarantees stable results. Nets, ropes, cheap interceptors, controlled crashes, “captures” in flight: everything points to a trend where the shooting down of drones small ones is less like classic air defense and more like a craft accelerated by urgency. Even outside Ukraine they are being tested net throwers integrated into drones or portable devices, but here innovation does not come from laboratories, but from units that need something to work as soon as possible. Two threats, two solutions. Furthermore, the interesting thing is that they do not compete with each other: each system seems optimized for a type of prey different. He missile vehicle points to the large and repetitive problem of fixed-wing Shahed/Geran style drones, fast, persistent, used in mass attacks and sometimes accompanied by decoys to saturate. The “fishing rod”, on the other hand, is a more surgical tool. against quadcopterswhich usually operate near the front, spy, correct fire or attack with light ammunition. One is road hunting against targets that they come from afarand the other is hand-to-hand fighting in the airalmost a contact combat. Together they draw a clear map: Ukraine is not looking for a single miracle solution, but rather a toolbox where each trick covers a part of the enemy’s arsenal. The cost war. It we have counted before. Ultimately, it all comes back to the same dilemma: how to tear down a lot without going bankrupt. Ukraine is already using FPV interceptors fast that can cost very little compared to traditional systems, but require an operator, expertise and pursuit time, which limits their scalability. That missile buggy It offers “cleaner” takedowns and with less human burden in the final guidance, but it forces you to select carefully when it is worth spending that shot. The “cane” it’s the opposite: an attempt to make the demolition as cheap as a simple gesture, extreme economy. In other words: air defense is no longer just advanced technology: it is tactical accounting applied to the minute. Image | Ukraine Air Command Central In Xataka | Bombing your own trench is a kamikaze tactic. Until Ukraine has turned it into a Russian butcher shop: the “second course” In Xataka | The “zombies” of the … Read more

Juan the fishing monologues

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The jokes were, in Spain, the common minimum that linked to all types of humor that were made in Spain. But if we continue to divide and divide what makes us laugh in increasing existing. That is the essence of the last viral phenomenon that, in addition and honoring its nature, is spreading through channels that are not, of course, the most modern in the world: WhatsApp groups. Who is Juan the fishing. Juan Ortega Ramos, 33, Help your father in the family fish marketLocated in Bass of Guide (Sanlúcar de Barrameda), hence its nickname. In recent months it has become a viral phenomenon thanks to diffusion through WhatsApp of the audios that, in principle, He only sent his friends in a common group. From there, a viral success that has some cryptic and incomprehensible. I don’t count jokes. Because, unlike icons of Andalusian humor as who was perhaps the last great jokes of Spain, Chiquito de la CalzadaJuan the fishingman only makes spontaneous reflections and prepares very simple messages. “If you block someone on Instagram, can you keep seeing it on the street?” It is the type of audios that arrive at the innumerable WhatsApp groups that collect their sound messages, next to a “good morning” myriad, “yesterday what”, “good night” and all kinds of variants of the format, stated with unmistakable Gaditano accent. What makes Juan special the fishing is not the quality of his humor, but a format that returns us to past times. Social Protorships. WhatsApp was born as an instant and private messaging group, but functions such as groups They transformed the goal application into an equivalent, more manageable and controlled, of social networks. The increase in members per group, from 15 to 1024 users, has allowed the creation of more active communities. In this way, even with their limitations of size and use (or precisely thanks to that, facilitating access to users not so duchos in technology or who are not interested in communicating with those who do not know personally), WhatsApp groups make up a reality parallel to social networks, where phenomena like this sprout and live and live. You start with WhatsApp. Although it is not the first phenomenon linked to the humor that starts on the Internet, of course it is the first one that finds its main diffusion mattress in WhatsApp. Some others with whom we could relate the humor of Juan the fishingman, such as Martita de Graná either Commander Lara They have sprouted in networks like Tiktok, but their humor is more professionalized and use more conventional formats, from the monologue to traditional jokes. Significantly, this explosion of Juan the fishingman coincides with the turn that WhatsApp wants to give to its platform, going from being of Messaging app to content platform. The spontaneous triumphs. Although Juan the fishingman does not count jokes, his spontaneity drawn Virtually incomprehensible screams and outbursts It can be linked to this type of little elaborate joke (nothing to do with giants such as the aforementioned Chiquito, or teachers of telling stories of humor, such as Eugenio or Gila) who has always prevailed on our television, until I get to ‘Do not laugh that is worse’, perhaps his ultimate bulwark. It is a type of map erased joke for our late stand-up or the television humor of people like Buenafuente or ‘The revolt‘, turning those who cultivated it (Barragán, Arévalo, Marianico el short) into a vestige of a Spain that no longer exists. A little to which gives continuity, with his pure Spanishism, Juan the fishing. In Xataka | The videos of AI have broken the Instagram and Tiktok algorithms. Welcome to the new “AI landscape”

Fishing networks of a town in Denmark

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Of the large number of images that reflected the chaos and disorganization that originated the Brexit, few like the one that occurred A 2020 morning. Most televisions opened with an aerial plane that was approaching, revealing what was actually a monstrous row of arrested trucks for days. The divorce between the EU and the United Kingdom was consummated and the fishing was going to be one of the great victims. Over time the industry has been transformed, and in a town in Denmark they have completely turned it over. The gardener and an unexpected network. Carl Futtrup, a 53 -year -old gardener from Denmark without links to the military world, has become A key piece In the Ukraine defense effort in responding to an unusual request from the front: industrial fishing networks capable of stopping Russian explosive drones. After knowing the need, he contacted fishermen of the town of Thyborønwho They donated 450 tons of networks drag manufactured with thick nylon, originally designed to support tons of open sea fish. These networks, discarded after Brexit for being useless due to the Loss of access to British waterthey became a vital resource for Ukrainian troops. As? In the front they are placed on fortified positions, armored vehicles and logistics routes to intercept drones and avoid direct attacks, even stopping drones with active propellers or reducing the impact of their explosions. Ordinary solution to a technological threat. As drones dominate the battlefieldthese low -cost networks have become An essential defense against increasingly sophisticated threats, such as guided by fiber optic that escape traditional electronic interference systems. Let us think that heavy networks not only offer physical protection, but are also reusable even after explosions, and their effectiveness has promoted a growing demand by the Ukrainian units. Some brigades have come to line trees, tunnels and vehicles with these meshes, and it is estimated that each unit may require between 50 and 80 tons of network per month. Russia, meanwhile, has also begun to use them with variable results. The need is so great that the current supply barely reaches to meet the demand, and many battalions are still waiting for deliveries. From the Danish port to the Ukrainian front. They counted in Insider that Futtrup has achieved another 600 tons of additional networks contacting more Danish ports, although the cost of transport is high: about 90,000 euros for the second shipment, with each truck carrying up to 20 tons at a cost of some some 3,000 euros per trip. Although the networks have been donated for free, maintaining logistics depends on voluntary financing and government support, so Futtrup has initiated efforts to obtain funds in Denmark and Sweden. The problem is that this source of networks is not sustainable in the long term. According to the Danish politician Carsten Bach, the strict environmental laws of the country They demand to discard or recycle This type of equipment, which means that there will be no continuous reservation. Most of them were stored by fishermen in the hope of re -slaining in British waters, but over time they were forced to detach them. Redefine in war. The Swedish organization CHANGE OPERATIONwhich collaborates with brigades in Ukraine, has confirmed that Danish networks are already in use by at least 13 units, although it warns that the supply is insufficient. With the access to the Black Sea and the Azov Sea largely blocked by Russian forces, importation is the only way to get more networks. In this regard, a commander in the Donetsk region pointed out that his battalion needs three truck charges (Around 60 tons) every month, and that the installation of a single load can take three to four days. Faced with this demand, Operation Change already seeks alternatives in organizations that clean the Swedish coasts. Impact from simplicity. Jennifer Kavanagh, expert of the Think Tank Defense Prioritiesthis phenomenon highlighted as an example of how war in Ukraine has democratized combat modern. Faced with the traditional approach to military powers to invest in advanced technologies, the case of fishing networks shows that simple, cheap and available solutions can have a decisive impact on the battlefield. It seems clear that networks are not a viable option for all armies, but they do represent A strategic lesson about the need to evaluate less complex and expensive options in future wars. Meanwhile, Futtrup continues its personal effort to maintain the supply. Its immediate objective is ensure 50,000 euros To hold the transport chain, and ensure that it will continue to send networks while available in Denmark. For him, the distance between Copenhagen and Ukraine is not an excuse. “Ukraine is part of Europe, and is only 1,250 kilometers from here”, holds. His initiative has not only contributed a concrete solution in the front, but has also symbolized how civil solidarity can become a vital shield in the midst of the most technological war in our era. Image | Carl Futtrup, Commander, us, Grid-Aendal In Xataka | The Ukrainian invention that has allowed to repel the waves of Russian attacks: a 41 km fiber optic cable In Xataka | The war in Ukraine has entered its deranged phase: there are drones throwing drones to attack other drones

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