Posidonia oceanica or seagrass is an underwater plant that grows abundantly along the Pityusic coastline, and it is one of the archipelago’s most treasured ecological features.
Seagrass is included in the Declaration of Ibiza/Eivissa World Heritage Site (1999) and it also grows profusely in the Portmany Bay. Balearic law ensures that it is strictly protected with requirements that included a prohibition on dropping anchor in the vicinity of the plant, as the anchors and chains can seriously damage the plant life.
In order to protect it and facilitate mooring along the island’s coast, the Balearic Government has created a website, www.atlasposidonia.com, which includes maps and an app to help with finding a place to anchor.
But why is seagrass considered such a valuable plant? We give you six reasons why below:
1) It is exclusively endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. There is no other place in the world where it grows aside from this region and although abundant seagrass meadows are found in Sicily, Cyprus and the Spanish Levant, the main fields are found between Ibiza and Formentera, and are considered to be the oldest living entity on the planet having existed for over 100,000 years. There is believed to be an area of around 50,000 square km of seagrass in the Mediterranean
2) A hectare of seagrass generates the same amount of oxygen as 5 hectares of Amazonian forest, and some scientists have claimed that the difference could be to up to 15 hectares. Consequently, the submerged forests of the Mediterranean perform a fundamental task for the planet, contributing to its health and doing so more effectively than trees, with the added advantage that seagrass does not burn.
3) It promotes biodiversity as over 1400 different species inhabit the seagrass meadows, and it also acts as a refuge for all kinds of extremely valuable microorganisms.
4) Seagrass captures 10% of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) generated by the Balearic Islands. In fact, the seagrass fields are considered to provide a major part of the oxygen that we breathe on the planet.
5) It protects the beaches by creating natural underwater barriers and when its leaves are washed to shore they cover the sand, preventing erosion by the waves. Beaches would be very different without seagrass.
6) It filters the waters, leaving the sea transparent. If there were no seagrass we would not have the turquoise waters of the Ibizan coastline, one of the island’s main tourist attractions and our economy and way of life would be substantially affected without it.
Map of seagrass in the bay
