Too much vigour in Vigo

摘要

It's 7am and Vigo's indoor fish market is buzzing. As porters haul around crates of the latest catches, auctioneers with megaphones shout out the prices. Arranged across the floor of a hall several hundred metres long are fish from distant seas: Norwegian salmon; mid-Atlantic cod; hake from the coasts of Argentina; shark being inspected by some buyers from Asia. Vigo, in Galicia, Spain's north-western province, is the largest fishing port in Europe, and its worldwide haul is a tribute to the energy of the Spanish fleet. But it is also an indication of something more disturbing. Upstairs in his office, an official of the Vigo port authority explains that "we started noticing about ten years ago that our local waters were yielding fewer and fewer fish. That's why our boats now have to go to fish off places like Mauritania and Argentina." And would he like to give his name to a visiting journalist? No chance.