The beaches of asturias stained every fall color vermilion with the arrival of tons of algae. Its use as a fertilizer has given way to other applications, like the production of agar, an ingredient popularized by chef Ferran Adrià
it Dawns sunny in Barro, Llanes. We are in one of the most popular beaches of the east of Asturias during the summer season, but with the arrival of fall changes to the bathers by crews of neighbors with tractors. The locals have come to expect from the sand that the sea gets closer to the coast, rafts of algae. It is a common phenomenon that occurs seasonally between the fall and the winter beginning of the spring tides of St Augustine. Since centuries ago, the Cantabrian sea hurls tons of sea plants that dye red a big part of the cantabrian coast.
These algae arribazón, so called because they are torn away by the sea during storms, and then the currents and winds tend to deposit on the coasts, are known in Asturias as ocle. Traditionally, it had been used as a fertilizer for fields and gardens… until their use in various industries such as food, medicine or cosmetics has driven a run for their collection in bulk, making it an important source of employment and wealth in the region.
Synonymous with a way of life, sustainable and with a reduced environmental impact, the gold rojoha past as being a one-off activity to have a fundamental importance in the local economy that is carried out in a way regulated and professional. Is one of the main economic resources of dozens of families in a council very much affected by unemployment and by the jobs linked to the tourist season.
Joaquín de la Vega has 58 years, is the neighbour of Mud and one of the ocleros more veterans. Has been working between seaweed “ever since, when what we collected for compost,” he says. It combines with the care of their livestock, but this is another activity that keeps you. “The 90% we are farmers and ranchers, trades no longer as profitable as before, and now is the ocle that allows us to live with more ease. Yes, we are still depending on the vagaries of nature,” he says without removing eye to the wave conditions.
The tide is rising. The last series of waves that are coming in seem to be colored in a hue vermilion. The collectors who are waiting on the beach begin to point to the sea with a big deal about it. Reaches the ocle. The tractor pull and, as in a choreography, you are taking your position on the beach. Take a few cloves of forks anchored to the rear by way of rake, where it is caught the material gradually depositing on the sand.
The swell encrudece and strikes violently the driver’s cab even to move nearly five tons of weight of the tractors. “Being the sea live it is normal for us to reach you even to break some glass,” indicates Tato, son-in-law of Joaquin, while driving with the water at the height of the ankles, “the machinery we do not last more than three seasons, suffering the corrosion of the salt”. Tato is devoted to building the rest of the year, although, as Joachim, the red gold is their main source of income.
class=”icon-foto_16_g”> A tractor raked the beach, where they get tons of algae in order to reap the ocle. ALVARO SOURCE
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