OVER the past two years, the Balearic government has created an additional 1'200 moorings for the nautical sports industry through the use of floating pontoons, said Bartomeu Calafelal, regional Maritime Affairs Director, yesterday.
Speaking at the nautical tourism fair Hanseboot in Hamburg, Calafelal explained that the advantage of the floating mooring system is that they can be set up for the summer season to meet high demand and dismantled in the autumn. In this way, we have been able to meet the needs of nautical tourism without having to engage in major construction projects which would spoil the environment, he claimed.
Through the Balearic Ports Authority which reports to the regional Environment ministry, 13'000 moorings are managed in the public sector, 4'000 directly and the remainder through subcontractors. We've also made more efficient use of the space in already-existing ports and marinas, Calafelal said.
Both the Balearic Environment ministry and the Tourism ministry have had representation at the Hamburg Nautical Tourism Fair as an acknowledgment of the importance of promoting the Islands' facilities in key client countries, of which Germany is one. But Calafelal also said that the Balearics wants its visitors to respect the environment and highlighted the introduction in recent years of ecological mooring buoys which encourage vessels to anchor away from beds of the delicate underwater meadows of Posidonia grass in Balearic waters.