He Mar Menor is an annexed and connected albufera with the Mediterranean Sealocated to the southeast of Spain, in the region of Murcia and the largest in the country. Its special characteristics make it a tourist destination of great importance, so much that in 2019, the Mar Menor offered almost half of the hotel places in the region.
After several episodes of death of fish, between the fall of 2019 and the summer of 2021, in the Mar Menor these episodes multiplied due to episodes of anoxia associated with the deterioration of the ecological state of the albufera. This is still seriously affected by several processes of anthropogenic origin, so Many experts qualify this echocide situation.
Mar Menor control
The Government of Spain – Through the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), together with the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) dependent on the Center for Superior of Scientific Research (CSIC), attached to the Ministry of Science, Research and Universities–, It has installed a monitoring network for the control and monitoring of the Environmental State of the Mar Menor, awarded to the company ADASA SAU Systems for 1.22 million.
The network, which is already fully operational, will be managed by a scientific team of the oceanographic centers of Murcia and the Canary Islands (IEO-CSIC), which has designed the system and supervised its installation together with the head of the demarcation of coasts of Murcia, Daniel Caballero.
Sensorized underwater buoys and platforms have been located in six areas of the coastal lagoon to have the first monitoring network offered in real time and continuously meteorological and oceanographic information throughout the Mar Menor. The system is complemented by a dizziness and a weather station.
The points where they have Located the different elements of the network are the northern and south bucketsthe Central Platform, the Golas of the Station and Marchamalo, the General Air Academy and the headquarters of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) in San Pedro del Pinatar.
This Initiative is framed in the Belich projectcoordinated from the Oceanographic Center of Murcia, included in the framework of priority actions to recover the Mar Menor (MAPMM), endowed with 675 million euros, of which 15.8 million are dedicated to the improvement of scientific knowledge and follow -up.
The network will provide very precise and reliable oceanographic data of high temporary resolution, which will be complementary to those obtained by other monitoring systems of the lagoon and the waters of its aspect, underway or project, so that the alarm capacity of the system, as well as the diagnoses of its evolution, are the most robust possible and based on the maximum and better scientific information available.
Thus, the MAPMM also contemplates the improvement of the hydrological, geological and quality quality information network; numerical modeling of the hydrological and pollution cycle, especially diffuse by nitrogen and phosphorus; the hydrodynamic modeling and biogeochemical cycles of the lagoon and its impact on the Biota del Mar Menor; and an independent monitoring and evaluation system that integrates all the information and support to decision making.
On the other hand, the system will support ongoing scientific research, in addition to promoting and evaluating new proposals, which will result in a progress in the complicated decision -making task by the technical teams of the competent administrationson the actions and projects aimed at the protection and recovery of the Mar Menor.