Spanish views from a small town

For many hundreds of years people living all along this coast have set out upon the sea to catch fish. It has been a livelihood for many villages and towns and the original reason for the growth of some, such as Foz and Ribeira. Shellfish, which used to be the mainstay of many poor households, has also become a source of livelihood for many ever since people have recognized its quality. In Galicia the fishing sector, which includes shellfish, is about 10% of the region's gross national product. But that might be changing. Some years ago scientists detected that much of the carbon dioxide was being absorbed by the oceans. That was helping to brake climatic change and slow it down. The by-product of that absorption has only been recently noticed and is just as troubling as the rise in global temperatures. The oceans are becoming acidified. That doesn't mean they'll change into sulfuric acid overnight, but it means trouble to the organisms that live in them. The pH level of ...

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,...