November 2nd 2024

By planting underwater Posidonia seagrass gardens, we are trying to heal the wounds left in the sea due to the tourist season and the tens of thousands of yachts. It is an unequal struggle, with the wounds, instead of diminishing, becoming more intense every year.

Some people’s holidays and the fact that recreational yachts (against existing legislation) are still allowed to anchor everywhere, even over “protected” marine habitats, have once again this year destroyed hundreds, or even thousands of square metres of seagrass meadows. This has deprived nature and all of us of the valuable ‘ecosystem services’ that the seagrass meadows provide, such as the invaluable oxygen released, the ability to absorb large amounts of carbon and the protection of the coastline from erosion, while destroying the productive forests of the seas which are breeding grounds and safe havens for over 1300 species of fish and other marine species.

In a matter of hours we are capable of causing destruction with effects that will last for decades or even centuries. For this self-destruction, the responsibility lies to the national authorities, but this occurs with the tolerance of citizens: there is a clear lack of marine spatial planning, enforcement of existing legislation and other initiatives that the national state authorities should have taken. 

Instead of fighting to improve our lives and to reduce the heavy footprint we are causing on the environment in which we live, we are simply preparing for, and exacerbating, the next crisis that we will all experience, while we keep referring to the climate crisis either fatalistically, and others consider it is just a new business opportunity…