Formal complaints about the new pontoons in the Fornells Port

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Puertos, the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands, have opened a file for a concession to build and make use of five pontoons in Fornells Port. GOB has made formal complaints in order to remind that these new facilities were approved with a series of environmental conditions that must now be followed.

Let us remember that the project of remodelling the Fornells Port was conditional on a series of measures that had to be carried out prior to the commissioning of the new pontoons. Let us look at the conditions:

  • The Balearic Port Authority has to contribute 30,000 euros per season to the Posidonia Fund, in the form of an anchorage monitor who, in the summer season, daily monitors all the LIC (Communal Places of Importance) of the Marine Area of the North of Menorca and all the LIC of Punta Redonda Arenal de un Castillo. The first payment made before the occupation of pontoon L.
  • Send to the Environment Councillor of the Balearic Islands, underwater photographs of the pontoons A and B with their surroundings to show that they have not dredged the red zone of the posidonia reef outlined in plan 1 of the attached cartographic image, as well as a map of the new bathymetric levels resulting from the dredging.
  • Photographs of the pontoons F and G where it shows that the fingers and rings of the 41 mooring places to be removed have been dismantled.
  • Photographs of the beacons installed that delimit the prohibited navigation area so as not to affect the seabed, as well as the entry and exit channels.
  • Copy of the announcement of the tender of the works concerning the installation of the ecological buoy fields in the bay of Fornells.
  • Photographs of the buoys already installed in the coves to the east of the bay and along the north side of the dock.
  • Copy of the tender announced for the contract of service, or in this case, of the signed agreement, or of whatever other type of valid agreement, for the execution of the restoration of 5119.92 square metres of Posidonia Oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa. (This activity must be associated with the tracking of the meadows in the whole of the port area, especially in the restored area, following the criteria of the agreement of the Nature Network Committee of 27 May 2008).
  • Propose means for minimising the visual impact of the bollards to the General Directorate of Natural Spaces and Biodiversity.

GOB also asked that criteria for historical heritage and sustainability of boats be applied when prioritizing the allocation of moorings. Specifically, it asked for priority to boats of traditional construction of less than 8 metres, those that move by sail, electric motor or powered by technologies more sustainable than fossil fuels.

It should be borne in mind that studies carried out on nautical load capacity of the Menorcan coast shows that the defined maximum has been exceeded for 13 years. For this reason, the final increase in moorings that is to be carried out in Fornells of 77 new points, is also dependent on the financing, installation and management of the 77 ecological buoys in coves within and outside of the bay, given that this area can no longer accommodate more boats in high season.