The Cabrera National Park covers land and sea.

The Cabrera National Park covers land and sea. | Archive

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma10/08/2018 00:00
TW

The planned ninefold expansion of the Cabrera National Park to 90,000 hectares will include the construction of a radar system at Cap de Ses Salines. The park's director, Francesca López, says boats are not in themselves sufficiently effective in terms of surveillance and monitoring unauthorised movement in the protected area. New technologies allow for the installation of the radar, at a cost of around one million euros, and it will complement an existing one at Penyal Blanc in Cabrera. The surveillance area will therefore be much greater and enable alerts to be given for a boat to be sent out and make rapid intervention if unauthorised movement is detected.

As well as the new radar, the rapid-intervention boat will cost 650,000 euros. A further 425,000 euros are being budgeted to pay for additional personnel, such as environment ministry agents and boat crew. There will also be 1.5 million euros for research work, and the whole budget for the park will treble from 2.5 million to 7.5 million euros.

Last year, there was an increase in the number of penalties issued for infringing regulations in the park area. There were 75, which compared with 58 in 2016. Half of these were for anchoring on the seabed without permission. Others included sailing without authorisation, illegal fishing and landings in unauthorised areas.