The number of incidents of faecal contamination on the beaches in the Balearics doubled last year, from 46 in 2024 to 92 in 2025, and the quality of bathing water has deteriorated over the last fifteen years, according to the “Mar Balear 2026 Report” by the Marilles Foundation. They point to a trend of deteriorating water quality and increasing human and nautical pressure.
In addition, Marilles claims that it is essential to extend the monitoring of beachgoers and boats, which is currently only done in Menorca, to the whole of the Balearics, in order to improve the management of these areas and ensure the conservation of marine ecosystems and a safe experience for users.
Since 2010, the proportion of waters of excellent quality has decreased and, systematically, urban beaches have shown worse results.
In 2025, 70% of the beaches in the Balearics obtained an excellent rating. Formentera and Menorca are the islands with the best quality, with 100% and 80% of their beaches rated excellent, respectively.
Ibiza is the island with the most points below the excellent category, with 32% rated as good and 5% as sufficient. All points with insufficient water quality were located in Mallorca, specifically in Albercuix (Pollensa) and Cala Egos (Santanyí).
There were 92 incidents of microbiological contamination, double the number in 2024, of which 20 were bathing bans and 72 were recommendations not to bathe. The municipalities most affected by these episodes of faecal contamination were Soller, Santanyi, Calvia and Ciutadella. Between 2020 and 2025, there were 396 incidents: 313 recommendations not to bathe, 82 bathing bans and one in which the water was declared suitable for bathing.
A total of 11 municipalities reported incidents during those years (2020–2025): Santanyi, Calvia, Palma, Sant Josep de sa Talaia, Ciutadella, Pollensa, Manacor, Sant Antoni de Portmany, Capdepera, Llucmajor and Alcudia. Marilles points out that coliform sampling is only carried out in summer, coinciding with the high tourist season, which means that water quality during the rest of the year is not covered by the official monitoring system.
With regard to beach use, the report highlights that although beaches are the main tourist resource in the Balearics, only Menorca has data on human and nautical pressure in these areas. Between 2018 and 2024, the number of users on Menorca’s beaches has increased by 10%, and the percentage of beaches exceeding a maximum of 1,000 users per day has risen from 14% to 17%.
In 2023 and 2024, urban beaches had the highest number of users compared to unspoilt beaches and are the ones with the least space per bather. In 2024, 17% of beaches had very high user densities, with less than 5 m² of beach area per user, which is considered insufficient. In terms of the user capacity that each beach can support, since 2018 this has almost always been above the optimal limit of 100%.
In terms of the nautical sector, over the last five years, the number of boats anchored daily during the summer season has increased by 48%. Unspoilt beaches with services are those that bear the greatest nautical impact, so that between 2018 and 2023, the average number of boats per day increased by 68% on these beaches. In 2024, these beaches bore an average of 26.4 boats per day, while urban beaches recorded 14.2 boats.
Marilles stresses that beaches are complex, dynamic and highly fragile systems that provide ecological and economic benefits to society. It warns that in order to establish proper management, it is necessary to understand their sedimentary evolution and the frequency of land and sea use, and to have sanitary control of bathing waters.