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All the species you can see in this market
available for sale to the public
are just a little fraction of what's captured on a vessel's routine.
Some more species are left on board
that aren't commercially interesting because they aren't edible
or they aren't edible in the place where they would be sold.
All those species that aren't allowed to be landed
due to legal regulations.
they're thrown back into the sea, and they're called discards.
Generally speaking, FAO says that in the whole world
there's about 7 to 10% of discards,
that is, species or biomass thrown back into the sea without further use.
The most profitable exploitation in economic terms
is the one that protects the ecosystem.
Since the sea produces a lot more than it's able to assume,
that overproduction can be exploited,
that is the base of fishery,
a well protected and sustainable ecosystem
can be much more profitable than it currently is.
All this biomass that is currently underused or not used at all
such as discards generated by the fishery,
transform them to obtain food for humans or animals,
or compounds with a high added value
in order to add profitability to the fishery
with new technological developments,
using mainly the muscle of these species,
or even, were that possible,
take it directly to the consumer in its integral form.
What we're doing right now are processes of enzymatic biodiversity
of the prawns, a kind of small crayfish,
hydrolysed that can be used for human feed as a supplement,
or to feed animals, in aquaculture, fodder, etc.
it's a process we believe important.
Some species that are widely discarded, such as small crustaceans,
let's say, similar to crab or prawn
yet smaller, or more degraded,
we study the chances of obtaining compounds of commercial interest
like chitin or chitosan,
from the shells of these crustaceans.
A medicine, a compound very useful in the treatment of arthrosis
and other medical uses.
Compounds with high added value
for the cosmethic, chemical or food industries.