ARCHIVED - Minister tells the Murcia government to enforce existing laws to protect the Mar Menor

Teresa Ribera describes the situation in the lagoon as an environmental emergency

The visit of Teresa Ribera, Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition, to the Mar Menor on Wednesday ended not with the announcement of drastic measures and new legislation to protect the marine environment in the lagoon, but, rather less dramatically, with an insistence on the need to enforce existing legislation to ensure that the situation does not worsen further.

Sra Ribera visited the Mar Menor after at least three tons of dead fish and crustaceans had to be collected from the beaches at the weekend, when an episode of hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in the water caused fish to head for the shore and in some cases effectively commit suicide by seeking oxygen on land. Having met the president of the Murcia regional government, Fernando López Miras, in the morning, she boarded a boat with the leaders of the naturalists’ association ANSE to see the lagoon at first hand as well as speaking to local Mayors, scientists, residents, the fishermen of San Pedro del Pinatar and representatives of the agricultural sector, which is held largely to blame for the deterioration of water quality in the Mar Menor over recent decades due to fertilizers from crop fields in the Campo de Cartagena having run off into the lagoon.

On returning from her boat trip Teresa Ribera described the mass death of marine fauna at the weekend as “an environmental emergency” and confirmed that some of the water has become a “green soup” which is not likely to disappear without action being taken, although she failed to specify what action might be required. What she did say, though, is that there are no “magic solutions” to the problem, and that rather than introducing new laws the first step is to apply those which already exist, particularly those related to environmental protection, water management and protected areas along the shore of the Mar Menor.

The Minister also reiterated the need to put an end to certain agricultural practices including the illegal extraction of subterranean water and runoff being allowed to make its way into the sea, and re-stated her opinion that a re-think is necessary regarding land use in the Campo de Cartagena.

In short, she repeated that what is being seen now in the Mar Menor is the result of the authorities having turned a blind eye to the problem for so long and urged the regional government to assume its responsibility in enforcing the laws designed to protect the lagoon.

Image 1: Teresa Rivera studies a map of the Mar Menor with Pedro Garcia (left) of ANSE

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