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Las Encañizadas

San Javier, Mar Menor, Murcia

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 6 Nature · 3 Activities · 7 Curiosities · 3 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

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Las Encañizadas

Curiosity · San Javier, Mar Menor, Murcia

The encañizadas are a traditional artisanal fishing method of Arab origin, already documented in the Middle Ages, which takes advantage of the migratory habits of certain fish between the Mediterranean and its coastal lagoons: circular labyrinths of reeds and nets that fish enter but cannot leave, highly selective by species, mainly gilt-head bream, grey mullet and, to a lesser extent, sole. The Encañizada de la Torre and the Encañizada del Ventorrillo, located next to the islets of the same name in one of the channels linking the Mar Menor to the Mediterranean, in the municipality of San Javier, are the only two still in operation in Spain; the first of the current ones came back into use in 1995. Similar ones previously existed in La Manga and in the lagoons of Elche, Valencia and the Ebro Delta.

Photo: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

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