Quality beaches: 13th Barcelona seabed clean-up now underway
An initiative organised by the diving section of the Guàrdia Urbana Sports Club (ceGUB in Catalan).
A total of 97 beaches in Catalonia have been awarded Blue Flag status, a standard that is internationally recognised as a mark of quality. Of these 97, 31 are in Barcelona, and much of the credit for achieving this objective goes to the campaign to clean up the seabed on Barcelona’s beaches, now in its 13th year. This initiative is organised by the city police (Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona – GUB), and subsidised by the 2030 Agenda Commission in order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
As GUB officer Israel explains, this campaign intends to collect between 550kg and 1 tonne of waste from the Bogatell, Mar Bella and Bac de Roda breakwaters, depending on the state of the sea. The Bac de Roda breakwater is one of the black spots for waste thrown into the sea.
The clean-up process is carried out twice: once at the beginning of the beach season, and again between the middle and the end of September, when the bathing season is over. The breakwaters are cleaned – the sides, the seabed and the top, where people sometimes go to have a drink.
The items recovered during the clean-up are mostly wipes, cans, glass bottles and cigarette butts. Wipes are the main pollutant on the seabed, and their accumulation poses a major threat to marine species.
The importance of taking care of the seas and oceans
The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda embodies the international commitment to addressing the social, economic and environmental challenges presented by globalisation, putting people, our planet, prosperity and peace at the centre of policies and action. This agenda consists of 17 goals, and number 14 is the one that affects our seas.
These face serious problems, above all those of pollution and acidification. Both are major issues impacting on the preservation of marine life. Protecting and sustainably managing marine and coastal ecosystems with a view to the conservation of at least 10% of these areas is the objective here.
The aim is also to preserve fishing, which is an important economic activity for many coastal areas, while regulating it in line with sustainability criteria and with a strong emphasis on encouraging non-industrial fishing. To keep on enjoying our seas, it is imperative that we take care of them!
