The Sea, a shared responsibility: Summer campaign 2016
In the last years, GEN-GOB has organized a summer campaign with volunteers to study and the meadows and spread the knowledge about Posidonia oceanica meadows.
The campaign was focused in two objectives:
- Creation of the Environmental Surveillance Network.
- Field study to identify the impact of yachts on Posidonia oceanica
Environmental Surveillance Network
One of the aspects that we realized, before beginning the summer campaign for the protection of Posidonia oceanica, is that there were different entities seeking to do a similar job. The mission of the team was convincing these entities to collaborate in a joint campaign, and unify efforts. The entities that joined forces in the so-called Environmental Surveillance Network were the Ibiza Association of volunteers, and the Red Cross.
The aim of this network was to inform yacht captains the importance of preserving the meadows of Posidonia oceanica, and not anchor on them. In order to this activity, we formed a team of kayaks and SUP, to distribute the publicity materials by promoting good practices of navigation, and this part of the campaign was coordinated by the Red Cross.
Field study to identify the impact of yacths on Posidonia oceanica meadows
One of the objectives of the campaign was to document the damage that resulted in uncontrolled anchoring of boats on Posidonia oceanica meadows. To meet this goal, a diving campaign was designed to analyze this impact in a descriptive way.
Dives with scuba gear, were conducted in three different points of the island of Ibiza. These dives were filmed and photographed, demonstrating the impact of anchors and chains of boats on Posidonia oceanica meadows.
More than 40 volunteers participated in the summer campaign. This campaign had very important media coverage in the local press. One of the main achievements was that the local institutions accepted the need to regulate anchoring both in Ibiza and Formentera.
