2011

SAVE POSIDONIA FORMENTERA!!!

Posidonia Project supports the defense of Posidonia in Formentera

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Official Press Release

Anchoring might destroy the posidonia in Formentera in three years

Experts estimate that a third of the meadows between Punta Pedrera and s´Espalmador have been razed

One boat only destroyed an acre of posidonia in a day. The investigator Carlos Duarte says that the effect of uncontrolled anchoring is an “intolerable aggression”. San Félix counts on regulations for anchoring in protected areas and citizen awareness.

In spite that the meadow grows in a protected marine area and the explicit prohibition of casting down anchors onto the carpet of posidonia, thousands of boats anchor with impunity over the marine plant throughout summer. The effect of gripping, where the anchor moves along the sea bed dragging everything it finds in it´s way, is devastating vast stretches that according to San Félix are “as big as razed football fields”. That, added to the destruction that is caused by the movements of the chain that links the boat to the anchor, imply that in the last 10 years “the surface of oceanic posidonia has probably been reduced between 30 and 40 per cent in the stretch of sea that separates Punta Pedrera from Espalmador” added the biologist, that admits that “there is still inaccurate data”.

A documented example of the ravages of uncontrolled anchors is the case of the “Turama” yacht, with a length of over 100 meters, that was followed audiovisually by a team of divers led by Manu San Félix while the boat was anchored at the Ses Illetes beach the past 26th and 27th of July.

In the images you can see how the anchor, of an approximate weight of half a ton and a length of over two metres, is driven by the force of the current and rips out the posidonia from the roots, finishing off in a few minutes the reefs that took centuries to form. San Félix estimates that the Turama´s anchor destroyed 10,000 square metres of posidonia in one single day. This calculations were carried out thanks to the program that registers, via satellite, the grip of the anchor and the movement of the ship. The biologist points out that “even the smaller boats provoke great damage because there are many more” and adds that “although the vessel might have a length of ten metres, each anchor can destroy hundreds of square metres of posidonia while damaging marine species of special importance for the quality of the water such as pen shells, protected by law”.

Reactions

With this critical situation of the Formentera meadow, doctor Carlos Duarte, an investigator from the Mediteranean Institute of Advanced Studies (Imedea) has issued a message in which he claims that the destruction of the posidonia is “an intolerable aggression” and reminds us that “it is the large yachts(…) of millionaires and public personalities who tolerate this aggression while they look the other way”. The expert adds that “behind this aggression there is a slackness of duties on behalf of the authorities and the public security forces, on whom responsability for the protection of this valuable heritage falls”. The scientist explains that “in the meadow reside the oldest living organisms of the planet, with cloned posidonia that could be thousands of years old” and argues that “a destroyed acre of this plant, which occurs once in one day in the waters of Formentera, requires more than 300 years to regenerate itself”. Duarte, consider the highest authority worldwide on posidonia and marine phanerogams, assures that each acre of posidonia has a capacity to convert CO2 to oxygen equal to five acres of amazon jungle.

Meanwhile, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the organization that awards Unesco´s Heritage Site Awards in the environmental field, is studying reports on the Formentera meadow. This institution, stationed in Gland (Switzerland) could take away the international award from the meadow if they deem that the posidonia is no longer a natural asset.

Alternatives to the destruction

San Félix explains that to regulate anchoring on the posidonia meadows is “basic” for “any person with a minimum of sensibility”. Nonetheless, he underlines the importance of awareness about this asset: “if the people from the boats knew what was under the water, they wouldn´t anchor” and adds that this awareness should get to everyone that lives in the pine islands: “From those of us that work in the sea to students, waiters or mailmen”.

Source  Source translated

Posidonia Project aims to achieve to reverse the reduction trend of the total area of Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea before 2014

Posidonia Project