Kinga
Wrona

What is climate change for you? Is it something that is happening so far away that does not effect you? What do you think first when you hear climate change? Plastic pollution? Dying animals? Do you believe the climate crisis can affect society and can change everyday life of farmers from Italy or seafood collectors from Spain?

Ria de Arosa (north of Spain) is the richest estuary in terms of shellfish in Galicia which is selling the seafood around the world.The estimates losses in this sector, only in 2021, are at around 10 million euros. The reason for the decline of shellfish harvest is known to scientists. First but not least the low salinity of the sea due to heavy rains, rising temperatures, amount of "sweet water" which enter Atlantic Ocean due to melting glaciers.  Biologists are also concerned about the increase in the amount of algae in the sea caused by high temperatures which cause mortality of shellfish. Cleaning the algae requires more time, money and effort on the part of shellfish gatherers.

„They say there are no new people coming to work with us. I understand it. My grandmother was a shellfish gatherer, my mum was and I am. I love this job. I have 2 daughters but I do not want them to come to work here. They will live in hunger” - says Maria de Carill.