Buoy marking at Sa Punta beach causes concern among mooring holders

Ibiza Town Council has installed buoy markers at the pier of Sa Platgeta de Sa Punta, in Es Viver, “with the aim of protecting the coastline and preventing illegal moorings,” in a move that continues measures begun last year at Talamanca beach, where the buoy system was, however, breached.

The City Council has installed buoys to delimit the pier area and put an end to the informal harbour that fills this stretch of coastline with boats every summer. The measure forms part of a broader marine protection plan and aims to remove vessels anchored irregularly.

The authorities say a grace period has now opened to allow owners of boats wintering at this location to remove them before early March. With this step, the council hopes to reclaim the coastal space and prevent it from becoming an unauthorised mooring point again.

The decision to tighten controls in Sa Punta follows events in September 2025, when Ibiza Local Police had to intervene at Talamanca beach. The council had installed new buoys and lines to define the entrance channel to the pier opposite Hotel Argos and curb irregular use of the area.

However, the system was breached after the installed marker was first ignored and later even cut, and the pier once again became congested with tenders, sparking frustration among residents and legal mooring users. Locals reported that several boats broke the newly installed delimitation system, after which vessels entered and exited without control.

According to residents, the bay was once again saturated, as every summer, with legal and illegal charters and large yachts anchoring in disregard of regulations. They also criticised the lack of ongoing enforcement after the 15th of August operation, when eight boats, moorings and illegal buoys were removed near the Argos area, an intervention initially celebrated as a turning point in the recovery of the beach.

Residents say the lack of sustained monitoring allowed the situation to deteriorate again. They also claim that even before the buoy was cut, tenders from large yachts were already crossing the floating barriers installed by Local Police to dock, pick up passengers and even dispose of waste outside permitted hours.

However, not all users have welcomed the measure. The Punta de Baix Boat Skippers Association, currently made up of 45 members, all from Ibiza, has publicly expressed, in a letter sent to this outlet, its “deep surprise” at what it considers “an eviction without prior notice from a space that, they say, they have used in an orderly manner for more than four decades.”

Founded in 1991 as a non-profit organisation, the association says its aim has always been to preserve and organise the traditional use of the Punta de Baix maritime area, promoting navigational safety and responsible coexistence among users. They note that their members include former professional fishermen and seafarers with long historical ties to these waters.

According to a letter sent to Noudiari.es, they claim to have maintained agreements and authorisations with successive municipal governments for more than thirty years, always, they say, within a framework of institutional collaboration. They cite a 2001 municipal agreement that modified the buoy layout 80 metres from the shore as an example of that understanding with the council.

They also recall a meeting in 2023 with the current mayor, Rafa Triguero, in which, according to their account, he was receptive and willing to recognise the association as a legitimate interlocutor in the reorganisation of moorings.

The association says that, for the first time in over forty years, it feels displaced from the area without prior coordination. It insists its actions have never been profit-driven nor intended to operate outside administrative control, but rather to prevent unmanaged situations that could harm both the environment and users.

The group concludes that it does not seek to create controversy, but to provide context and highlight that behind the situation are Ibiza residents and families historically linked to the sea who feel that a decades-long framework of collaboration has been broken.