Environment

Boats in Portocolom bay flouting anchoring regulations

Boats are anchoring on posidonia sea grass, when they shouldn't be.

Boats are anchoring on posidonia sea grass, when they shouldn't be. | Gori Vicens

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterFelanitx14/08/2017 00:00
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Anchoring in areas where there is posidonia is nothing new off parts of the eastern and south-eastern coast. But there is a law which is supposed to deal with this. In the case of the bay of Portocolom, there are buoys which theoretically bring order to the anchoring. However, the number of boats of varying sizes has increased dramatically.

Groups like Terraferida and Salvem Portocolom have denounced the apparent impunity with which boats are anchored in posidonia sea grass areas. On Sunday there were some thirty boats in the bay. There was a similar number off Playa d'es Carbo near Colonia Sant Jordi.

Indignation said to be shared by residents, swimmers and environmentalist groups has led Salvem Portocolom to encourage residents to denounce cases of "irregular" anchoring. It wants them to phone the 112 emergency line in order to activate environment ministry surveillance.

Boats in posidonia zones are supposed to now have to use ecological buoys, but checking on this seems to be limited. As reported last week, there are three ministry boats. Two of these operate in the bays of Alcudia and Pollensa. The third covers what is basically the length of Es Trenc. Playa d'es Carbo is only a short distance along the coast. Off the eastern coast, however, there is no surveillance boat.

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