Moral Dilemma
I'm guilty. I have done something that perpetuates a crime. At the same time I have helped some people that were going through a bad time. I have bought illegal shellfish. I knew at the time that it was illegal. However, I could trust it because at that time the red tide was not affecting the beaches and shellfish was begin dug up and sold legally from the same beaches. Also, shellfish from the beaches around us do not need to go to a purification plant because the water is deemed clean enough for immediate consumption of the shellfish growing in it. But the people who sold it to me had no license to dig it up and sell it. They were furtivos.
A furtivo is a permanent fixture of the beaches in Galicia. You will find them mostly at night, darting on a beach, digging at low tide for clams and cockles while keeping a lookout for any guard who will send them running for the woods, hiding their merchandise to come back for it later. Because to dig for clams, cockles, and razor clams, a person must first apply for a license to do so at a certain beach (someone from our town cannot go to any other town to dig for shellfish). That person must then pay a special tax for being self-employed and the social security tax. Then they must pay the sales tax on all the shellfish they sell, which they cannot do directly to the public. The cofradía ("fishing brotherhood") they then belong to and which controls all the shellfish gathering at all the beaches of the town, obliges those who belong to it to share in the seeding of the beaches and in the surveillance of the beaches to make sure the furtivos don't show up. It's not an easy job, because even though their backs hurt at the end of a low tide, that's not the worst. The worst is that thanks to the weather, red tide, or other problems, they don't have work year-round. But they do have to pay the self-employment and social security taxes every month. Which is one reason the furtivos are considered the lowest of the low by legal shellfish gatherers.
The reasons for being a furtivo are various. I know of at least one who is a retired pensioner. The pension is not enough to live on with an unemployed daughter and her family living in the house, so the pensioner goes and sells clams he digs illegally as a supplement. Another one I know of is a drug addict. I believe he receives a disability pension, but the addiction means he needs more money. I think he's been to detox centers, but he's always fallen back into the hole, so to me (and a lot of the neighbors) it's better that he sell a couple of kilos of clams or cockles to finance his habit rather than break into houses. Others who dig the beaches at night are long-term unemployed who have exhausted their unemployment benefits but still have families to support.
Of course, the most involved and least thought of factor in this moral dilemma is biodiversity. Once upon a time there was no limit to who could dig nor how much they could dig, nor obligations to seed. There were beaches where you could not walk barefoot because of all the clams and cockles right under the top layer of sand. The beaches and waters were teeming with shellfish. Wild oysters would grow on just about any rock right next to the mussels. But all that disappeared gradually until licenses became obligatory to be able to bring them to the surface. Obliging potential diggers to apply for licenses (only a limited amount are available every year; some beaches have waiting lists) brought some control to these waters. But it also left many out in the cold, especially in these hard times.
How to draw lines to respect everyone? It's extremely difficult. I just know that I will buy from legal vendors and sometimes from illegal ones. And that I won't buy too often from anyone so nature has a chance to regenerate itself.
A furtivo is a permanent fixture of the beaches in Galicia. You will find them mostly at night, darting on a beach, digging at low tide for clams and cockles while keeping a lookout for any guard who will send them running for the woods, hiding their merchandise to come back for it later. Because to dig for clams, cockles, and razor clams, a person must first apply for a license to do so at a certain beach (someone from our town cannot go to any other town to dig for shellfish). That person must then pay a special tax for being self-employed and the social security tax. Then they must pay the sales tax on all the shellfish they sell, which they cannot do directly to the public. The cofradía ("fishing brotherhood") they then belong to and which controls all the shellfish gathering at all the beaches of the town, obliges those who belong to it to share in the seeding of the beaches and in the surveillance of the beaches to make sure the furtivos don't show up. It's not an easy job, because even though their backs hurt at the end of a low tide, that's not the worst. The worst is that thanks to the weather, red tide, or other problems, they don't have work year-round. But they do have to pay the self-employment and social security taxes every month. Which is one reason the furtivos are considered the lowest of the low by legal shellfish gatherers.
The reasons for being a furtivo are various. I know of at least one who is a retired pensioner. The pension is not enough to live on with an unemployed daughter and her family living in the house, so the pensioner goes and sells clams he digs illegally as a supplement. Another one I know of is a drug addict. I believe he receives a disability pension, but the addiction means he needs more money. I think he's been to detox centers, but he's always fallen back into the hole, so to me (and a lot of the neighbors) it's better that he sell a couple of kilos of clams or cockles to finance his habit rather than break into houses. Others who dig the beaches at night are long-term unemployed who have exhausted their unemployment benefits but still have families to support.
Of course, the most involved and least thought of factor in this moral dilemma is biodiversity. Once upon a time there was no limit to who could dig nor how much they could dig, nor obligations to seed. There were beaches where you could not walk barefoot because of all the clams and cockles right under the top layer of sand. The beaches and waters were teeming with shellfish. Wild oysters would grow on just about any rock right next to the mussels. But all that disappeared gradually until licenses became obligatory to be able to bring them to the surface. Obliging potential diggers to apply for licenses (only a limited amount are available every year; some beaches have waiting lists) brought some control to these waters. But it also left many out in the cold, especially in these hard times.
How to draw lines to respect everyone? It's extremely difficult. I just know that I will buy from legal vendors and sometimes from illegal ones. And that I won't buy too often from anyone so nature has a chance to regenerate itself.
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| Over forty years ago, boats arriving with sacks of cockles. That is no longer possible. (Thank you to Facebook page Historia de Rianxo.) |
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