Repsol installs 17 new biotopes with ecological buoys on the beaches of Tarragona

Salou. Costa Dorada. 13 June 2018. The company Repsol has presented a new campaign of ecological beaconing on the beaches of the Tarragona coast, which this year is completed with the installation of 17 new artificial biotopes. The new buoys have been located in Tarragona and Altafulla. Salou already has eight of them installed in previous editions. With these, there are already 120 biotopes submerged in these beaches since the installation began, six years ago. Unlike conventional buoys, biotopes are placed permanently and incorporate an intermediate buoy system that does not damage the seabed.

The Pescadores del Serrallo wharf has been chosen this year to present the new ecological buoys that will determine the area reserved for bathing in some municipalities of the Tarragona coast. The presentation ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Altafulla, Fèlix Alonso, the Director of Corporate Development and Sustainability of the Port of Tarragona, Joan Maria Basora, the director of the Repsol Industrial Complex in Tarragona, Josep Francesc Font and the creator of the buoys, Miquel Rota.

The municipalities that use this system of ecological beaconing of the beaches are Torredembarra (with 32 biotopes installed), L'Ametlla de Mar (11), Altafulla (38), Salou (8), Tarragona (26) and l'Hospitalet de l'Infant (5).

The artificial biotopes are large pieces of work and stone made with a natural cement of high durability that attract marine flora and fauna and cause a reef to form. They have a height of between 1.5 and 2 meters and their width is usually one and a half meters, while their weight is between 1,500 and 2,500 kg. These biotopes have an intermediate buoy that makes the surplus chain of the buoy on the surface to delimit the bathing area, stays in suspension and does not damage the seabed when there is a storm.

The biotopes are installed permanently and at the end of the summer season, only the chain and upper plastic buoy are removed, which allows the marine life that has been generated around it, is not damaged and continues to grow, unlike what happened with the traditional concrete blocks that were placed and removed at the beginning and end of each summer season. Thus, with the new system of ecological buoys, the base is at the bottom of the sea and at the beginning of each season some divers locate by GPS the exact position, to place again a surface buoy.

Regarding the financing of the project, Repsol takes charge of the biotopes, while the town councils finance the maintenance of the material and the installation and removal of the part that goes from the intermediate buoy to the surface.

The biotope parks

Torredembarra and Altafulla have biotope parks, that is to say, an extension of land where there are several submerged biotopes with which, in addition to regenerating and conserving the marine flora and fauna of the area, it seeks to bring the sea closer to its visitors. Through different aquatic activities and education and awareness in favor of the conservation of the marine environment.

These biotope parks have an area of ​​200 square meters. The Torredembarra is located at a depth of 4.5 meters, while the Altafulla is about 5.5 meters deep in the bathing area and about 200 meters from the coast.

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