CONSERVATION IN THE BALEARIC ISLANDS
Regulation (Posidonia Decree)
To address the threats of Posidonia seagrass in the Balearic Islands, the Balearic Government approved Decree 25/2018 on July 27th, which establishes a framework for the protection and conservation of Posidonia oceanica. The decree prohibits trawling fishing, extraction of aggregates, dumping of dredged materials, and uncontrolled anchoring on Posidonia meadows. Additionally, it includes new aquaculture facilities, new submarine outfalls, and new construction projects if the corresponding environmental assessment determines they could have negative impacts on Posidonia. The decree also regulates the use of Posidonia remains.
Posidonia Surveillance Service
With the aim of protecting and conserving posidonia and through the Decree, the Posidonia Surveillance Service is created. This service consists of 19 patrol boats around the Balearic Islands, with the goal of helping sailors protect Posidonia and promote good practices derived from the Decree to prevent damage from anchoring. Additionally, assistance can be accessed through VHF channel 68: Any vessel with a length of over 15 meters can contact the surveillance service boats to assist with anchoring.
Please note that there seems to be a mix of two different texts, so the last paragraph might not be fully related to the subject of the Posidonia Surveillance Service.
Buoy fields
Currently, the Conselleria of Environment and Territory is managing 8 anchoring fields with more than 250 low impact buoys. The main objective is to prevent uncontrolled anchoring in meadows with a high risk of impact. By 2023, 5 more fields with capacity for an additional 171 low impact buoys have been approved, parallel to the increase in activity in the nautical sector.
Cartography
Through the ATLAS POSIDONIA project, the cartography of Posidonia in the Balearic Islands has been completed. The project has allowed for the identification of marine habitats and a higher level of detail of the plant on the seabed of the Balearic Islands. The last phase of this project has consisted of the development of the “Posidonia GOIB” app, which allows any user to know, through geolocation and in real time, the seabed on which they intend to anchor. Therefore, we ensure that anchoring is done correctly and never on Posidonia.
COST AND SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
Territory: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera.
Entity presenting the project: Government of the Balearic Islands.
Amount: €774,821
Year of application: 2017.
Execution: 2017 – 2019.
Execution status: Initiated.
Posidonia Monitoring Network
The Network is a tracking ecologic status of Posidonia in the Balearic Islands. Through regular monitoring of fixed marine stations distributed throughout the Balearic archipelago to determine the conservation status of the plant’s meadows. The Network has been collecting data for over twenty years, increasing the number of stations year after year until reaching 51 by 2022.
