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The fish moves gently from side to side. It looks like a small fish or a larva, slowly drifting with undulating movements. Many eyes watch it with interest. But in this world, not everything is what it seems, and reality can change as quickly as a spasm.
When discourses are repeatedly adorned with references to economic dynamisation, progress, security… even freedom or sustainability, one must be careful not to fall into a trap similar to the one used by the anglerfish to feed.
This fish specialises in settling on the seabed, half buried. Once camouflaged, it activates an appendage located between its eyes and moves its tip back and forth as if it were a small animal wriggling, attracting the attention of other fish looking for food to fill their stomachs.
Beneath the false bait lies an enormous mouth, lined with thick teeth curved inward. When the prey tries to understand where the sudden movement it has just perceived came from, it is already trapped in a dark cavity full of hooks that only allow it to go deeper. The deception has worked once again.
The anglerfish spreads around it the message of an easy and attractive reward. It sets a lure that appeals to instinct. It promises a gain to whoever feels free enough to take it. Furthermore, it offers a prize to those who show strong character and firm opinions. It invites the exercise of freedom with few constraints. This is also, at times, how the world works in marine society.
Claiming to help farmers while promoting changes to the Territorial Plan that allow all existing buildings to be used for residential purposes is a trap similar to that of the large, flat-headed fish. The bite will not be taken by farming, but by real estate activity.
Expressing concern for water resources while planning more tourist beds and, at the same time, removing the few existing limits on swimming pools and large-scale irrigation is to sink to ground level and wallow in the hope that the move will go unnoticed.
Showing interest in solving the housing problem while attracting more visitors who will require more labour from outside, failing to deregister tourist rentals that are reaching the end of their licence period, and suggesting that more housing should be built without capping prices are like the movements of the anglerfish’s appendage: they promise a reward but in reality generate benefits only for those who remain hidden.
The anglerfish already appears in fossil records from millions of years ago, after the dinosaurs. It has not done badly, and some specimens sit high in the food chain as major predators. But it suffers from modern diseases.
Being a big fish is no longer a good position. The pollution we have poured into the sea accumulates in prey. The greater your capacity to prey on others, the more mercury, lead and other heavy metals you concentrate. In addition, many specimens are caught before reaching reproductive size and die without leaving offspring.
The play of appearances is now commonplace. Some say it is hegemonic. Distinguishing real benefits from propagandistic attractions, separating a helping hand from a dangerous lure, and breaking down appearances to reveal facts is essential, at sea and on land.
May we have a good start to the year.
(This text is an adaptation of the original article published by Miquel Camps, as coordinator of territorial policy for the GOB, in the Menorca newspaper on 22/12/2025).