The saturation of vessels the saturation of the Freus is perfectly immortalized in this image from the Sentinel satellite of the Copernicus program, in charge of climate monitoring on behalf of the European Union, which took the picture this summer.
Between the ships that are in full navigation and those that remain anchored off the coast (small white dots can be seen, especially in front of ses Illetes de Formentera, s’Espalmador and ses Salines de Eivissa), the figure is around 400 boats.
Although most of the anchored vessels appear to be on sandy ground, it is also apparent that many others do so on posidonia (especially visible in ses Salines de Eivissa), despite being totally prohibited and subject to heavy fines. In fact, these uncontrolled anchorages on the seagrass meadows are one of the main causes of their progressive disappearance.
Yachts at anchor along the beach of Cala Saona / Carmelo Convalia / Diario de Ibiza
This whole area is, paradoxically, Natural Park despite this, the only existing restriction on recreational navigation and anchoring consists of the installation of ecological buoys in front of certain beaches to encourage mooring on them and avoid anchoring on posidonia.
Almost 2,000 boats per day in summer
According to a study made public in December 2018 and prepared by the Natural Park’s management team, es Freus supports per year an average of 1,960 boat trips per day during the summer. Although this is the summer average, there are peaks of up to 2,494 transits.
That means that during that time of year they travel through this strait no less than 82 to 104 ships per houran exceptional throughput unparalleled in the rest of the country.
Boat traffic and anchoring in ses Salines de Formentera / Sentinel/Copernicus
Of all these boats, 10% are regular traffic ferries, while the rest are recreational vessels of all sizes. Of these, only 8% were sailing vessels, while the rest were motorboats, according to the report, which analyzed the traffic recorded that year and the previous year.
Vessel traffic in Eivissa / Sentinel/Copernicus
This situation produces serious damage to local fisheries, as traditional fishermen are seeing how their fishing grounds are being invaded by this avalanche of recreational yachts, which shows no signs of abating. It is not only the ‘dead’ boats that anchor for mooring that are damaging the seabed. Fishermen fear even more “the waste released when emptying the bilges,” as well as noise and light pollution, which scare fish away.
In this area there are 67 zones destined for traditional fishing, but tourism is driving out these professionals. Fishing with small gears “is being displaced from its working area because of an increasingly intense tourist exploitation”, according to a report prepared by the Department of Fisheries of the Consell Insular de Ibiza.
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