Parklife

I had a good day on friday. In the morning I visited the Instituto Nacional de Pesca (National Fisheries Institute - INP) who it turns out, after 2.5 weeks of meetings, contacts, discussions and a conference, are the people that I really need to speak to here. This is South America I guess and I have learnt that it sometimes takes a while to dissociate politic from goodwill....especially when my Spanish is not really able to pick up subtle reference (or even blatant smoke and mirros). Anyway, got there in the end.

INP are the 'competent authority' for fisheries and aquaculture produce in Ecuador. This means that they have ultimate responsibility for guaranteeing that fishy products that are caught or grown in Ecuador meet the exacting standards of markets like the EU. They have to make sure that things such as antibiotic residues and other contaminants in products such as prawn are below the agreed guidelines set by the EU. If they are not, the EU will stop the import and you may find it difficult to find your tiger prawns in Tesco's on a friday night.

I had a very interesting discussion with them regarding possible future demands for disease testing of shrimp entering Europe. Countries such as Australia already have very strict guidlines for imported prawns (any that carry viruses, which survive the freezing process are a potential threat to the wild fauna of the country...this being particularly dangerous in island habitats). At present, only a few countries (such as Colombia) demand that Ecuadorian prawns are tested for viruses before export but in the future it may become a much more common demand by importing nations (including the EU)...a significant driver to improve biosecurity measures within the producing countries.

Anyway...

In the afternoon I took a stroll to the centre of Guayaquil to look for the famed iguanas that live in the Parque Semenario. Ecuador is famous for its iguanas but perhaps most people associate their presence with Galapagos Islands, 600 miles out from Ecuadorian coast. Well, in this case they are not in a wildlife reserve but instead strolling happily amongst the dirty pigeons, not intimidated at all (target reference). I tried to get as close as possible but looking down the lens at these things and not seeing how close they are to you is a little unerving!

Taking it easy this weekend catching up on emails and writing a report about this adventure so I will check back in on monday after I visit an organic prawn farm down in the Machala province south of Guayaquil. Hasta luego.



If he turns around and approaches us just fly...ok!!

You don't see this in Hyde Park.