Illegal anchoring on Posidonia seagrass falls to 6.4% in the Balearic Islands

The reduction in illegal anchoring has been recorded across all the islands except Ibiza, where the number of cases has doubled in one year.

The 2026 Mar Balear Report updates its Response chapter, which contains indicators on the management measures implemented to mitigate pressures on the marine environment in the Balearic Islands.

The presence of recreational vessels along the Balearic coastline has continued to increase, particularly during the summer season. However, the number of vessels navigating and anchoring off the beaches of the Balearic Islands remains unknown. This increase in anchored vessels poses a direct threat to seagrass meadows, particularly those formed by Posidonia oceanica. This marine plant is protected at European, national and regional level, both as a species and because of the habitat it forms, and it has been confirmed that anchoring with chains or ropes, using anchors or permanent mooring blocks, contributes to the degradation of these meadows.

The Government of the Balearic Islands operates several services aimed at reducing impacts on the seabed:

• Posidonia Monitoring Service of the Balearic Institute of Nature (IBANAT)

This service operates during the months when the coastline is most heavily used. In 2025, it had 19 vessels and carried out nearly 181,500 information and monitoring actions.

This work continues to produce results, as the percentage of improper anchoring incidents detected has fallen to an average of 6.4% across the Balearic Islands, one of the lowest figures recorded since the service was launched. The highest percentage of improper anchoring was recorded in 2018, at 17.3%. As shown in the charts attached at the end of this release, this downward trend has been observed on all the islands except Ibiza, where improper anchoring incidents doubled between 2024 and 2025, rising from 1,719 to 3,468 in just one year.

• Low-ecological-impact buoy fields, installed mainly in areas designated as Sites of Community Importance (SCIs)

These buoy fields help to reduce and prevent anchoring damage to sensitive habitats, particularly Posidonia seagrass meadows.

In 2025, Ports IB managed eight low-ecological-impact buoy fields. Mallorca is the island with the largest number of buoy fields, with three, and the highest number of available buoys, with 115. It is followed by Menorca, Cabrera and Formentera, each with two buoy fields and 94, 90 and 88 buoys respectively, and Ibiza, with one buoy field and 39 buoys.

Mallorca and Formentera are the islands with the highest number of moorings for small vessels measuring up to 8 metres in length. Despite having the lowest total number of mooring buoys, Ibiza is the island that allocates the largest proportion, 21%, to vessels measuring more than 15 metres and more than 20 metres in length.

The increase in human, tourism-related and nautical pressure in the Balearic Islands leads to greater waste generation and a higher likelihood that this waste will end up in the sea. In addition to causing inconvenience to people using the marine environment, marine litter negatively affects marine species, communities and ecosystems.

Although the solution to marine pollution depends primarily on good practices by society and public authorities regarding waste use and management, the floating waste collection system operated by vessels from the Coastal Cleaning Coordination Centre (CCNL), promoted by the Government of the Balearic Islands, provides a tool for removing waste that reaches the coastal areas of the Balearic archipelago.

The number of vessels assigned to this work has been reduced by almost half, falling from 40 vessels in 2010 to 22–23 vessels since 2021. As a result, the amount of waste collected has also decreased considerably, from an annual average of more than 200 tonnes between 2004 and 2010 to 28 tonnes in 2024, almost ten times less.

Throughout the monitoring period, plastic has been the main component of the waste collected, accounting for approximately 40%. This highlights the threat it poses to marine organisms through ingestion, entanglement or incorporation into the food chain.

Citizen science plays a key role in awareness-raising and public outreach, as participants not only contribute to scientific knowledge but also become more aware of and deepen their understanding of marine conservation through direct experience.

Public involvement in improving knowledge of the marine environment continues to grow in the Balearic Islands. The marine citizen science platforms Observadores del Mar, Biodibal and DAPERA, operated by the Species Protection Service of the Government of the Balearic Islands, have contributed thousands of new observations on marine biodiversity, thereby helping to increase environmental awareness.

Between 2000 and 2025, Observadores del Mar validated more than 24,000 observations of marine species and habitats throughout Spain. Notably, one in three of these observations, more than 8,000, were made in the waters of the Balearic Islands. Furthermore, eight out of every ten observations validated in the Balearic Islands between 2020 and 2025 were recorded in marine protected areas.

Biodibal, meanwhile, has already recorded more than 20,900 observations of the marine environment, covering more than 1,600 marine species. At the same time, the DAPERA project continues to expand knowledge of rare fish species, with 455 recorded sightings.

The protection of Posidonia seagrass, the regulation of anchoring in marine habitats, the removal of waste and public participation in monitoring marine biodiversity not only improve the health of the sea, but also contribute to the conservation of marine ecosystems and help to safeguard the environmental services they provide.

The full Response chapter is now available on the Mar Report website.