The impact of quad tourism: a preventive action for the Mediterranean
ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Authors: Enriquez-de-Salamanca, Alvaro
Abstract
The Mediterranean region attracts annually more than 400 million tourists. In recent decades, quad tourism has grown, favoured by poor regulations. Environmental impacts of off-road vehicles have been widely studied in the USA, but not in the Mediterranean. This paper addresses that gap through a literature review on the impacts of motorized recreation, and an analysis of the current implementation of quad tourism in the region and of advertising topics. Main impacts were reported on soils, vegetation and wildlife. We have registered 337 quad agencies in 20 Mediterranean countries, with important concentrations in some regions. Half agencies promote their tours with images driving out of the trails, 22% crossing rivers, 9% driving on the beach, 7% on dunes and 23% sell the activity as an extreme adventure. It is necessary a stronger authorization framework, including the environmental impact assessment of these activities, more involvement of tour operators in environmental protection and greater education of the participants about the impacts of off-road driving and the importance of their behaviour. Further research in the region is also convenient.
Optimization of the Enzymatic Protein Hydrolysis of By-Products from Seabream (Sparus aurata) and Seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), Chemical and Functional Characterization
FOODS
Authors: Valcarcel, Jesus; Sanz, Noelia; Vazquez, Jose Antonio
Abstract
Valorization of seabass and seabream by-products is becoming increasingly relevant, as marketing of these species moves from selling whole fish to filleting for convenience products. With this aim, we optimized for the first time the production of fish protein hydrolysates (FPH) by enzymatic hydrolysis from filleting by-products of these commercially relevant aquaculture species, isolating fish oil at the same time. On the whole, both fish yielded similar amounts of protein, but frames and trimmings (FT) were the best source, followed by heads and viscera. In vitro antioxidant and antihypertensive activities showed similar figures for both species, placing FPHs from FT as the most active. Molecular weights ranged from 1381 to 2023 Da, corresponding to the lowest values of FT, in line with the higher hydrolysis degrees observed. All FPHs reached high digestibility (>86%) and displayed an excellent amino acid profile in terms of essential amino acids and flavor, making them suitable as food additives and supplements.