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Date Published: 20/04/2022

ARCHIVED - 100,000m2 of algae pops up in the Mar Menor

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The regional government has introduced a new farm overseer to try to curb nitrate runoff from farms in the Campo de Cartagena

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - 100,000m2 of algae pops up in the Mar Menor

Murcia has introduced a new role of “Agri-environmental Operator” on the Region’s farms as a type of overseer to make sure the farm owners in the area around the Mar Menor lagoon are complying with the protection measures outlined in the Mar Menor Act.

The Regional Minister for Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and the Environment, Antonio Luengo, explained during a visit to a greenhouse for growing peppers in Dolores de Pacheco, that “these are necessary partners for farmers, trained in the contents of the Law for the Protection and Recovery of the Mar Menor, to help them apply the measures on the ground and inform them of any breaches so that they can be corrected.”

Luengo assured that this step will “guarantee the protection and recovery of the ecosystem” and highlighted “the efforts of the farmers who are applying the measures that allow the sustainable exercise of their activity, using the most advanced technologies such as probes to control irrigation or fertilization”.

Only farms with more than half a hectare of irrigated land or 5 hectares of rainfed farmland obliged to have an Agri-environmental Operator, either on staff or an external professional, and will have six months to make the hire. Any farms smaller than this are exempt.

It’s assumed that larger farms will not ‘cook the books’ to split their properties into several smaller units of half a hectare each under different names and owners to avoid having to hire one of these new overseers.

It’s also unclear how the Agro-environmental Operator will remain an unbiased observer and ombudsman for the farms if they are employed directly by them and receive their wages from them.

Among the functions of this new role is to advise on the proper compliance with the measures relating to the management of manure and slurry and its application to the soil with fertiliser value. In addition, the Operator will prepare the documentation or information that the owner of the farm must provide for the control of nitrate pollution.

It’s one of many measures that the Region of Murcia’s government is enacting to try and reverse or <span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - 100,000m2 of algae pops up in the Mar Menor

slow the pollution of the Mar Menor, and only time will tell if it will actually make any difference.

What’s clear is that the situation becomes more desperate with each passing week. The latest tragedy to hit the natural lagoon, which was recently awarded the same rights and protections as a legal person, is the appearance of algae due to an excess of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which is caused by runoff from contaminated farm water.

The environmental association Pacto por el Mar Menor announced that the strip of algae present in the Mar Menor now is about two kilometres long and an average of 50 metres wide – a total of 100,000m2 of algae – stretching from kilometres 5 to 7 of La Manga del Mar Menor, about 100 metres from the coastline.

This latest episode increases fears that in the coming months, as temperatures rise, the process of eutrophication that was seen last summer and which killed off thousands of fish in the lagoon will be repeated.