Calpe Town Council wishes to recall the important role played by Posidonia meadows on the beaches and has announced that it will only remove the remains of Posidonia from La Fossa beach as it is a small beach and only during the summer months.
The council thus complies with the provisions of decree 64/2022 of the Consell for the conservation of this endemic species of the Mediterranean Sea, of great ecological value, which came into force last year and which prevents its removal in order to preserve the vital environmental function of this plant, known as the lungs of the Mediterranean.
This decree allows its removal in specific cases, as is the case of this beach, as it is a small urban beach where there is a large number of tourists and a large number of tourist services. These circumstances mean that there is not enough space to house the accumulations of these marine plants. The Town Council began to remove the debris accumulated in the Fossa on 1 July and since then has moved it to a municipal plot where it will remain until 30 September, once the summer season is over, and then return it to the beach.
"We are aware that the remains of these plants can cause inconvenience to bathers, but we want to insist that the Posidonia meadow is a treasure that we must look after, and we want to make people aware that without these remains, without the Posidonia meadow, bathers would not have a beach to enjoy," said Pere Moll, councillor for beaches.
In this regard, he stressed the need to continue to raise awareness among bathers about the oceanic meadow, as they tend to think of it as dirt. The truth is that the presence of remains of this species both in the water and on the sand is a clear sign of good water quality and indicates that the water is clean and free of pollution. He also explains that these accumulations of leaves that occur on the beach are remains that have become detached from the underwater meadow resulting from storms and are known as arribazones, which play a fundamental role in preventing the loss of sand from the beaches.
On the other hand, Posidonia meadows are a source of a rich marine biodiversity due to the large number of species it shelters, and at the same time it is a vulnerable species, hence the need to protect it.