Spanish Fisheries, Forestry, Livestock, Energy, and Geography

Posted on Dec 15, 2024 in Geography

Fisheries in Spain: Population, Landings, and Market

The Population Engaged in Fisheries: The subsector’s dedicated workforce is 0.4%.

Evolution:

  • Since 1968: A decrease in the number of crew per ship begins.
  • From 1977: A crisis occurs in the deep-sea fleet, leading to a decrease in the number of crew.

Causes: The economic crisis of 1973, the establishment of 200-mile exclusive economic zones, and legal laws for the sea to protect against overexploitation of fish stocks.

The average age of the crew is indicative of its family character. Employees assumed 2/3 of the fishing workforce, and non-employees, 1/3. This is explained by the increase in jobs in family fishing (i.e., autonomous) and by the reduction of workers in the deep-sea fishing fleets since the crisis of 1977.

Landings, Market, and Consumption

Of the total fisheries landings, ¾ is fresh fish (sardine, hake, anchovy), and the rest is frozen (octopus, shrimp, hake). 90% of fish is for human consumption. The increase in the amount spent on canning is due to a decrease in landings, not industrial development. The canning industry is located in the north. Spanish fish consumption significantly exceeds the European average, although it was not significant at the beginning of the century.

Marketing Characteristics: The retail chain has oligopolies centralizing large quantities of fish, making it more favorable to the business side than to the productive side (i.e., fishermen). This factor contributes to poor supply in the interior. The FROM (Fund for the Regulation and Organization of the Market for Fishery and Marine Culture Products) is in charge of regulating these issues and establishing technical standards to improve product quality.

Spain continues to rely on foreign markets due to the near exhaustion of national fish stocks, the weak capacity of the Spanish fishing fleet due to exclusive economic zones, and strong competition from other countries’ fleets.

Forestry in Spain: Decline and Current Status

The decline of forests is the result of a combination of natural and human factors, with human factors having far more relevance. Charcoal wars, the Mesta, the development of railways, mining, and dismemberment have led to significant deforestation in Spain. Secularization put enormous public forest land in private hands, which ended up cutting them down. For various reasons (especially fire), about half the land reforested between 1950 and 1980 has been lost.

Causes of Fires: Negligence, intentional acts (economic reasons, timber speculation), drought, and natural causes (lightning).

Forest growth in recent years has been equivalent to the area of the province of Pontevedra, due to reforestation and the abandonment of farming activities.

Forest Harvesting

  • Resin: Obtained from Pinus pinaster. Production, concentrated in the sub-plateau, has fallen by more than half in the last 30 years.
  • Cork: Derived from the cork oak. Mostly drawn from Extremadura. Production has doubled in recent years.
  • Landscape Appeal: Although it cannot be measured economically, it is also a resource. The EU has recognized the creation of plans to preserve forests and natural habitats of wildlife.

Livestock in Spain: Production and Breeds

Livestock production today is far from resembling that of a few years ago, having gained in quantity and quality.

  • Bovine: Slight decrease in recent years. Foreign breeds (Friesian and Brown Alpine) dominate. However, the amount of native meat (Black Andalusian, Retinta) has increased, contrasting with the fall in mixed breeds (Galician Blond, Tudanca). Since the 1960s, dairy cattle breeding has grown.
  • Sheep: Decrease in breeds such as Merino due to the liberalization of wool imports in the late 1960s. Increase in other breeds such as Segureño or Aragonense. Native breeds dominate.
  • Porcine: Similar process to cattle. Decrease in Iberian and Celtic breeds to accommodate foreign breeds (Large White). It has sufficiently met the rising meat demand of Spanish society, like laying hens.
  • Caprine: General reduction. Slight increase in breeds such as Granada (meat) and Murcia (dairy).
  • Laying Hens: Spectacular rise. It has sufficiently met the rising meat demand of Spanish society, like swine.

In general, livestock has become specialized, with mixed or non-competitive breeds disappearing. The composition of the “herd” has been dramatically transformed, becoming predominantly foreign, with breeds selected for rapid growth and fed with feed. This is intensive livestock farming. However, extensive ranching remains important, as with goats and sheep in the sub-plateau and Andalusia.

Raw Materials and Energy Resources in Spain

Raw materials are the basis of transformations, from which semi-finished products are derived. There is a variety:

  • Energy Minerals: Coal and uranium.
  • Metallic Minerals: Zinc, copper, iron.
  • Non-Metallic Minerals: Quartz, fluorine.
  • Quarry Products: Clay, limestone, granite.

The supply of these raw materials is determined by their non-renewable nature. Since Roman and Phoenician times, there has been mining interest in the Peninsula.

Problems: Low quality, irregular mineralization of veins, low power and discontinuity, insufficient funding for research, little investment in farms, etc.

Three factors may benefit mining in the future: the entry of multinational mining companies, the processing of the Spanish Geological Survey, and the creation of a credit line to promote mining.

Production of Energy and Mineral Resources

  • Uranium: Production meets demand. Saelices el Chico, Salamanca (90%).
  • Metallic Minerals: Come from the mineralized areas of the Hercynian base. Massif Galaico.
  • Non-Metallic Minerals: Varied production, usually in surplus. As prices rise, the value of production has increased. Catalonia and Madrid.
  • Quarry Products: The value of their production is uneven.

External Trade

  • Metallic Minerals: 40% of imports are iron and copper.
  • Non-Metallic Minerals: 22%. We mainly export non-metallic minerals, which are worth almost a quarter of imports. In metals, we depend 100% in some cases. In others, such as mercury, we have a positive export balance. In quarry products, marble is in deficit.

Energy Sources in Spain: Renewable and Non-Renewable

  • Renewable Energy Sources: Related to the natural environment. Continued regeneration cycle, inexhaustible. Solar energy (thermal, photovoltaic, and passive), biomass, wind, hydro, geothermal, and tidal.
  • Non-Renewable Energy Sources: Lengthy training process, not on a human scale. Holding is subject to the availability of a deposit. Coal, uranium, oil, and natural gas.

Developments in the Energy Sector

  • External to the Crisis: Since the Industrial Revolution, there have been no periods of autarky. In 1972, external dependence was huge, and neither research nor technology was fostered. In 1973, nearly all oil needs were covered, so the crisis had severe consequences in Spain.
  • Developments Since the Crisis:
    • 1973-1979: Consumption is maintained, and certain subsectors that demanded a lot of energy were restructured.
    • 1980-1996: Significant decline in consumption. The National Energy Plan applied measures on energy saving.

As a result of the crisis, coal consumption fell between 1975-1979, while oil consumption grew. From 1980, coal consumption grew until 1984, then gradually decreased. The reverse happened with oil compared to coal. Natural gas and electricity have grown since 1973 due to domestic use.

Sierra Morena: Geographical Features

This step extends over 400 km from north of Huelva to Albacete, with an average width of 60 km. The highest altitude is 1,300 m in Sierra Madrona and descends to 100 m in the Guadalquivir basin. Sierra Morena is not really a mountain range but a bending failure of the NW-SE file trail. The crag is Paleozoic, consisting mainly of quartzite, slate, and granite that give a dark color to the landscape and is the origin of the name.

There are three main sections:

  • The Western Sector: From Huelva to Seville. It consists of low hills.
  • The Central Sector: Between Cordoba and Jaen. It has a stronger relief.
  • The Eastern Sector: East of Despeñaperros, with soft ridges comprising quartzite.

The Pyrenees: A Natural Border

The Pyrenees form the natural border between the Iberian Peninsula and France, extending from the Bay of Biscay to Cape Creus in the Mediterranean, along 435 km of the isthmus. They are essentially alpine mountains, young, predominantly folded, and generally present higher altitudes and summits in the form of strongly cut ridges.

  • Axial Pyrenees: The axis of the ridge, split between France, Spain, and Andorra. It consists of the rest of the ancient Hercynian massif and is composed of Paleozoic materials like slate. The Alpine Orogeny greatly affected this set, lifting and rejuvenating it, resulting in abrupt forms and higher altitudes.
  • The Pre-Pyrenees: This fold is split into two mountain ranges separated by a depression. The northern alignment corresponds to the Internal Sierras, and the southern alignment to the Outer Sierras, with the Intrapirenaica Media Depression between them.

Pre-Pyrenees Subdivisions

  1. The Interior Mountains: Form a strip of Cretaceous material, whose ceiling is Monte Perdido (3,300 m), with other altitudes like Collarada Peña (3,000 m) and Anie (2,500 m). Its characteristic pattern is due to the karstification of the limestones and, in the higher massifs, to glacial erosion, with cirques.
  2. The External Sierras Alignment: Parallel to the interior, extending across the sector in Navarre, Aragon, and Lleida. With peaks such as Leyre (1,400 m), Loarre (1,900 m), and Montsec (1,700 m).
  3. Media Intrapirenaica Depression: A long, narrow depression between two folded chains, ranging from the Tremp basin to the Pamplona basin. It consists of several depressions together and perpendicular to the axis of the ridge.

In most of the range, Quaternary glaciation has acted, with ice covering all the high massifs of the Pyrenees. Ice tongues extended southward, giving rise to different U-shaped valleys. They also excavated funnel-shaped trays, which, upon melting, turned into mountain lakes. Volcanism is also present in the Pyrenees, as in the east, the folds are cut by faults that favored the formation of the best-preserved volcanic region in the town of Olot.