The sixth edition of the Encounter of the Seas focuses on the need to recover the oceans and their species in order to have better health by eating blue food.

A new edition, the sixth, of the Encuentro de los Mares began today at the Auditorio de Adeje. Leading personalities from the world of science, shipowners from the fishing industry and chefs with a passion for the sea are among those who have come together for a meeting whose aim, in the words of Lope Afonso, Vice-President of the Cabildo of Tenerife, is "to end up being better people and better professionals". All this, as Benjamín Lana, president of Vocento Gastronomía, pointed out, with "the sea, our first mother, the one who first gave us life" as the protagonist.

Blue health: reconnecting the link between the sea and human health' is the theme of this meeting, but it can be approached from very different angles. It can, of course, be done from the kitchen itself, as Rafa Zafra, chef at Estimar (Barcelona) and Arnau Subías, scientific director of GastroBio, have demonstrated. For Ferran Adrià, Estimar is "the seafood restaurant of the 21st century", and Zafra proved him right by preparing two live recipes featuring lobster and red prawns from Rosa. Subías, "the sommelier of the sea", described the characteristics of the two seafood dishes prepared by Zafra.

Italian chef Pino Cuttaia also lit up the Auditorium's stoves, preparing three seafood dishes inspired by tradition and a tribute to mothers and fishermen. Cuttaia runs the restaurant La Madia** in Licata (Sicily) and wanted to focus on the "marroir", as he believes that both his cuisine and his territory are dominated by the sea.

Ángel León (Aponiente***, Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz) said that his project to recover the San José marshes, in collaboration with Ecologistas en Acción, to create a public park where "people can enjoy the sea, plant seaweed, hydrophilic plants, etc." was closer to becoming a reality. Excited, León ended his speech by asking for the support of everyone (administration, ecologists, citizens...) to "make this dream come true for everyone".

Javier Torres, from Cocina Hermanos Torres*** (Barcelona), showed how fish and seafood from the Maresme region play a leading role in his restaurant's seasonal menu. The chef believes that using seasonal products is fundamental to preserving the land, its flora and fauna, and that products should be consumed "when they are at their most economical, sustainable and best". His restaurant's summer menu bears this out.

Two journeys through history

Perhaps we didn't know that red ochre and shells have been an almost indissoluble binomial for the last 250,000 years, but that's what Professor Carlos Duarte told us, who went further and affirmed that "our intelligence is a consequence of the artistic inclination of our ancestral mothers". The red ochre provided a reproductive advantage that was exploited thousands of years ago, but is still preserved in some way today. Duarte also left us with another thought, which goes beyond the subject of his own presentation and is one of the lines on which this meeting can be based: "Young people are not more fragile, they have changed their diet. We need to reconnect human health with the health of the ocean.

Dr Daniel Pauly, Chief Scientist of the Sea Around Us initiative, focused his presentation on the need to rebalance the relationship between humans and fish populations, with science and political and social will as two non-negotiable axes to achieve this. With individuals that became predators more than 150,000 years ago