Thousands of people have tried this Saturday to complete the 73 kilometers of the Mar Menor coast along various Murcian municipal districts to give it a symbolic hug and celebrate dressed in black a mourning for the tons of dead marine fauna due to lack of oxygen these last two weeks.
They were convened on all its beaches by the Mar Menor Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) platform, also to give it its own legal personality that would allow it to combat spills in court, which are destroying its biodiversity by eutrophication, that is, by the increase of nutritional substances that causes an excess of phytoplankton. Its origin is considered to be in agricultural irrigation discharges with nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers.
In order for it to reach the Congress of Deputies, 500,000 signatures are needed, which are being collected so that the rights of this natural area of the European Natura 2000 network with various international protection figures (SCI, ZEPA, SPAMI, RAMSAR wetland ) can be debated and aspire to be reflected in a law.
Jesús Cutillas, from the organization, declared that "it was a matter of collectively removing the pain and saying goodbye with dignity to all the animals killed by our greed", while the mayor of Los Alcázares, the socialist Mario Pérez, congratulated himself that the beaches were "full of people who have come from different places" to participate in the protest, which was also joined by his party colleague, the first mayor of Murcia, José Antonio Serrano, while a group of batucada beat their drums.
"We already support the ILP from the Murcia City Council, since there has been a historical and eternal symbiosis between the municipality's orchard and the Mar Menor that has been transmitted between generations, since it belongs to everyone," he indicated.
"Also to those who have not yet been born, so we have to put all the meat on the grill so that this unique lagoon in the world can be preserved with all the beauty and splendor that it has always had, for which we will support all initiatives to improve their environment", he added.
'Sun and salt', the anthem of the Mar Menor
At the end of the hug, a minute of silence was observed, after which the song Sol y sal was played, by the Cartagena group Nunatak, with the collaboration of Anni B Sweet, Miguel Ríos, Rozalen, Morgan, Second, Shinova, M-Clan , Bogotá and Ayoho are burning, which is becoming the anthem for the environmental recovery of Marmenor.
Between banners and T-shirts with the image of the seahorse and the fishbone and the legends "Sos Mar Menor" and "Mar Menor alive, zero discharge", Cutillas has made an automobile comparison by defending that "you have to change the mechanic if the engine does not stop breaking down, so here we must pay attention to the many scientists, ecologists and biologists who have always been right and said what would happen if polluting practices were continued".
The sailboat Diosa Maat, from Ecologists in Action, has joined the action by concluding its Mediterranean in Action campaign in its waters, which began two months ago in the Mar Menor denouncing the eutrophication caused by agro-industrial fertilizers and continued along the Valencian coast to warn about the impact of the uncontrolled urbanization of the coast, pollution by discharges or the loss of biodiversity.
15 tons of dead fish and algae
There are already figures of the environmental disaster since Monday, August 16 in the southern area of the Mar Menor: 15 tons between fish and organic matter (algae) removed, which have emerged especially due to the decomposition process that contributed to the decrease in oxygen, says the general director of the Mar Menor, Miriam Pérez.
The removal work has been carried out by the brigades of the Community and the City of Cartagena, the environmental agents assigned during the episode and the fishermen of the Brotherhood of San Pedro, whose work "has been fundamental."
The Community has insisted on the need to adopt "urgent measures that favor oxygenation", as well as "the immediate cessation of the entry of fresh water and nutrients through the Rambla del Albujón".
Since, they have warned, "the ecosystem continues in an extreme situation and the anoxic episodes could be repeated in the coming days as the scientific community warns".
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