ADN reports the beaconing and unjustified closure of bays and beaches to recreational seamanship

Prohibiting is not protecting: ADN reports the beaconing and unjustified closure of the bays and beaches to recreational sailing and warns that the ban to boats does not have technical nor legal justification.

Manacor’s Council has recently been the main character of a measure that has risen a strong controversy, specially between sailors: the total closure to sailing in any bay of the municipality. This decision, presented as an effort to improve the security of the swimmers and fight the alleged overcrowding of the coast, represents, however, an unprecedented blow to the nautical field of the Balearic Islands.

According to the official data of the rescue, salvage and lifesaving services regarding 2023, a total of 1.291 aquatic interventions with rescue were registered, a 28% more than in 2022. Of them, 902 were related with the lack of knowledge of the environment on the swimmer’s behalf: 402 due to sea currents, 339 due to strong waves and 161 due to having gone too far from the coast. 36 of these cases ended in death.

However, since 2019 there have only been three deaths caused by helixes of motor boats documented, and in all the cases, they were produced out of the signaled swimming areas. To this, a very special and crucial fact must be added: the 80% of drownings in the Balearics happen in places with no lifeguards’ vigilance, where the boats that are near are usually the only available rescue resource. These same boats, in concrete signaled areas, never have represented a direct risk to the swimmers.

The overcrowding argument does not sustain itself. The only local administration that counts with real measurement systems is Calvià’s Council, which, through an intelligent system of monitoring in six of its beaches, has shown that during the month of June the average occupation did not go over the 20% of the allowed capacity. Even on beaches such as Magaful, on key days, the number did not go over 23%. These facts contradict the narrative of an alleged “generalized massification” of our coasts and point out the necessity of taking decisions based on real information, not in perceptions or casual pressures.

The prohibition of access to the sea in Manacor could have, in addition, the opposite effect to the desired one: increasing the use of private vehicles, with the consequential environmental impact, on the mobility and the access to bays and beaches. All that without mentioning the collateral harm to recreational seamanship and a profile of a local, familiar and respectful user with the environment.

If the objective was really to improve security, the consistory should bid for reinforcing lifesaving services –especially in current unprotected bays– and for designing intelligent beaconings that avoid the swimmers getting dangerously far from the coast. Instead of that, it seems like a one-sided operation that criminalizes the sailor and does not focus on the security of organized and sustainable access to the coast.

It is urgent then that the Sea and Water Cycle Council intervenes and includes in its future integral coastline management law a clear normative about beaconings, which harmonizes the protection of the swimmen with the free circulation of responsible boats.