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Moving extra sand onto Mar Menor beaches to make them tourist-ready harms the lagoon, say eco warriors
Environmentalists have charged against councils of towns around the Mar Menor for their “insensitivity”
Easter is approaching and the four municipalities with a coastline along the Mar Menor – Los Alcázares, San Javier, Cartagena and San Pedro del Pinatar – are getting their beaches ready for an expected flood of tourists by putting extra sand onto the shore.
But the environmental group Pacto por el Mar Menor has claimed that this process, which consists of extracting the sand from the underwater part of the beach and moving it further up the shore, is harmful for the delicate ecosystem of the Mar Menor protected lagoon.
“In these actions, heavy long-arm excavators are still used, equipped with a large bucket, which is introduced into the water to collect the sand,” they said.“According to the Manual for Best Environmental Practices in the Protection and Regeneration of the Beaches of the Mar Menor (CARM), as well as a recent scientific report by the IEO, this technique… is not a good beach management practice and should be avoided since, in the medium and long term, it can cause negative effects on the environmental quality of the beaches and their use.”
This is because the depressions caused in the seabed “favour the accumulation of mud and destroy key marine habitats”, which are very important for the biodiversity of the lagoon and for the life cycle of many species.
Nonetheless, heavy machinery has been used throughout this whole month of March to do exactly that, and the code of best practices is not being followed, says the environmental group.“It is sad to see how these practices continue to be carried out, year after year, to promote tourism, but without taking into account the natural heritage that we all have the right to enjoy and the obligation to conserve,” they concluded.
Images: Pacto por el Mar Menor
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