On October 25th, at the Nautical Sports Center of the Consell de Formentera in La Savina, a new session of the sixth edition of the Marine Forum was held. This event served to present three projects aimed at marine conservation from three different perspectives. Technological innovation, data and sound engineering, musical creation, and educational outreach were the focus of the presentations.
DID YOU LIKE THIS CONTENT? WELL... YOU HAVE ALL OF OUR FULL PROGRAMS HERE!The day was inaugurated by Lidia Álvarez, General Secretary of PIMEF in Formentera, who highlighted that "as representatives and voice of the businesses of Formentera, we appreciate initiatives like this, such as the sixth edition of the Marine Forum, because these are the projects that provide us with tools to continue improving the care of our saltwater engine, the care of our sea."
Antonio Martínez Beneyto emphasized that "the Forum is a necessary showcase to present projects to administrations, companies, and society in which to collaborate and help to improve the situation of the Mediterranean."
Marco Mendoza, geographer and CEO of TrueWorld, a Balearic startup specializing in impact monitoring technology, presented the project they are carrying out for the General Directorate of Natural Environment of the Balearic Government on remote sensing, inventory, and predictive modeling of the main waste affecting the coasts of the islands, such as illegal moorings, ghost nets, and other types of waste. "We focus not only on researching and inventorying bulky waste but also on creating a predictive model. We combine demographic data and carrying capacity data to know where they are located and to define the areas at greatest risk of recurrence. In addition, having a precise inventory and catalog so that the administration can efficiently allocate resources for their removal. We handle the traceability of the data and obtain real-time information, combining satellite information and direct observation. For the CEO of TrueWorld, this tool has a very important part of public-private collaboration to continue detecting where these deposits of underwater garbage are located.
The second project presented was the podcast “Sumergidos,” eight episodes created by Elisenda Belda and Flor Dell’Agnolo, each starring an emblematic and/or protected marine species, some of them endangered, directly related to a specific marine issue, usually the main direct cause of the decline of these marine species.
"In this way, we combine two objectives in a single resource: we address the different environmental issues related to the conservation of the marine environment on one hand and on the other, offering a very practical and educational approach, we get to know firsthand the animals that suffer these issues. We know very well that if we pose problems, we must pose solutions, therefore, the end of each of the chapters will be positive, envisioning those solutions in the form of protection figures, good conservation practices that are indeed being carried out today or that thanks to science and the work of public administration, organizations and citizens will soon be implemented," both creators highlighted, wanting to leverage the power of a current and powerful tool like the podcast.
The presentation of “Posidonia soundscapes and marine conservation,” an initiative that combines science, research, and art, was given by Coco Francavilla, an Italian composer and sound engineer based in Ibiza, and Neus Pérez Gimeno, researcher at the Laboratory of Acoustic Engineering of the University Institute of Marine Research (INMAR) of the University of Cádiz.
Francavilla highlighted the strength of this project in which scientific research is connected with music, generating a marine conservation project. For her part, Neus Pérez explained that "sound is light in a dark world like the underwater. Through the soundscape, information is gathered about the situation of the posidonia meadow we are going to work on and know its environmental acoustic state. With our work, we feed the musicians to make art."
The day ended with an immersive session by Coco Francavilla in which she mixed live sounds of sea animals such as whales, sperm whales, shrimps, among others, with music performed by her live.
The session of the Marine Forum was attended by the president of the Consell de Formentera, Llorenç Córdoba; the councilors of the Partido Popular José Manuel Alcaraz and Verónica Castelló; the island director of Tourism, Leonardo Metastasio; technicians from the Consell de Formentera; environmental activists, and the general public.