On 14 June, the organisation Ecologistas en Acción published its annual Black Flags report, denouncing the most environmentally problematic spots along the Spanish coastline.
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The report includes a total of 48 black flags that have been awarded according to the nature of the problems in the different provinces and autonomous communities. Among the problems is the impact on biodiversity, the accumulation of marine litter, dredging and expansion of port infrastructures, dumping and deficiencies in sanitation systems, among others.
In the Balearic Islands, the two sites selected were the island of Mallorca, the bay of Portocolom and the Port of Alcúdia. The reasons are different, but they are nonetheless related. Portocolom has been selected for the pollution of its waters, while Puerto de Alcudia has been selected for bad management.
GOB Mallorca is not surprised by this choice, nor by the reasons for which they have been chosen. These are two areas of great wealth and value that are subject to a great deal of pressure.
On the one hand, in Portocolom the loss of bathing water quality is denounced. The contamination does not refer to the fact that it is outside the admissible values according to the sanitary parameters, but to the loss of transparency of its waters year after year. It should be remembered that the bay of Portocolom forms part of the Natura 2000 Network through the protection of the Site of Community Importance (SCI), declared for the marine habitats found there, which are protected by a European directive. One of these habitats is the Posidonia meadow, priority habitat 1120. This marine plant (phanerogam) is found in waters that receive a large amount of solar radiation, and transparent waters, and contributes to its transparency by facilitating the sedimentation of suspended particles.
In the bay of Portocolom there are different factors that contribute to the increase in the turbidity of the water and, therefore, pose a threat to this habitat. Among the causes that have been occurring over the years are dredging, which apart from destroying a part of another of the habitats present in the bay, in 1160 Large coves and shallow bays, formed by other marine plants such as Cymodocea nodosa and algae such as Caulerpa prolifera (among others), have led to the resuspension of sediment in the water and the modification of the currents within the bay. Massive anchoring also means the lifting of sediment particles that do not have time to re-deposit due to the constant traffic produced by the navigation of motor boats. Navigation in the bay is nonsense, as navigation speeds are not respected in any way. Navigation in the harbour, the navigation channel less than 50 metres from the coast, cannot exceed 3 knots. As for the rest of the bay, which is considered harbour zone I, speeds may not exceed 6 knots. This excessive speed in the bay, which is constant, is a great danger for the users who inhabit it, especially for bathers and other non-motorised vessels, but it also means a constant agitation of the particles in the water, which cannot settle. Added to all this is the fact that some of the houses closest to the bay are not connected to the sewage system, but to cesspools that often leak into the sea.
With all this range of pressures, it is urgent to start enforcing the existing regulations to avoid or reduce to a minimum the pressures on the habitats and associated biodiversity present in the bay of Portocolom. Enforcement of these regulations would also significantly improve the safety of users. We also ask for the publication of the Management Plan of the Natura 2000 Network Costa Llevant de Mallorca, where the LIC Portocolom is included, in order to have the instrument that allows adaptive management of the area with environmental conservation objectives.
On the other hand, in the Port of Alcudia the problem arises due to the poor management of the competent administrations in the area. There is an impact on the Posidonia meadow that exists before reaching the port due to the anchoring of large commercial vessels that wait their turn to unload in the port. We are talking about anchorages of several hours by vessels weighing thousands of tonnes which, with the anchoring of the legs, are able to unload in the port.
of thousands of tons that, with the dragging and anchoring of the anchors, sometimes have an impact on the Posidonia meadow, contributing to the destruction of the habitat.
The Port of Alcúdia is located in the Bay of Alcúdia, which, like the Bay of Portocolom, forms part of the Natura Network, as a SCI, with the aim of protecting all the marine habitats that are present. However, the area does not have any management tool that would effectively allow this. Therefore, we urgently request the creation and publication of a Management Plan for this SCI, since, for practical purposes, a regulatory instrument such as the Posidonia Decree (Decree 15/2018) is not preventing the destruction of this area.