Talamanca buoy field in the air: the City Council’s plan to “ban” anchorages

The expected field of ecological buoys of Talamanca, designed to protect posidonia and order the anchoring in this bay of Ibiza, hangs by a thread. The City Council is in a limit situation: if the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) does not move forward with the project before the end of 2025,the allocated European funds will be lost and, with them, the main tool to prevent uncontrolled anchoring.

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In this context, Mayor Rafael Triguero has admitted that the Consistory is evaluating alternatives. One of them, proposed by Marina Mercante, is to directly prohibit anchoring in the bay, although the legality of that route is more than debatable.

From the Conselleria del Mar y del Ciclo del Agua have detailed to The Voice of Ibiza that this alternative is not possible: the Ibiza Town Hall has no powers to prohibit free anchoring, as long as it is done onsandy bottoms and outside the marked bathing areas.

“It cannot prohibit free anchoring, since anchoring with anchor on sand is legal as long as it is done outside the areas marked out for bathing. What the City Council can do is to manage these marked areas, which are delimited to ensure the safety of bathers, but has no authority to restrict free anchoring in the rest of the area,” detailed from the Govern.

Precisely, this seems to be the alternative that the City Council is analyzing. When asked by this media about the possibility of prohibiting anchoring in Talamanca, sources of the Consistory responded: “With beacons to prevent anchoring“.

Awaiting MITECO

As confirmed by the City Council itself to La Voz de Ibiza, the Ministry has the buoy field project on the table. The condition is clear: it must be at least started before December 31, 2025, or else the European Next Generation funds destined to finance it will be lost.

From the Ministry, the Sub-Directorate General of Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity has indicated that the project for Talamanca has already been drafted and that it was promoted by the General Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification of the MITECO.

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However, it has not yet been made public, an essential step prior to bidding and execution.

“The project in question has not yet been submitted to public information, so we summon you to that procedure to learn more details,” they say from the Ministry.

A precedent in Es Palmador

A businessman in the nautical sector points out that the case of Talamanca is partly reminiscent of what happens in Es Palmador: no boat can anchor there, not even on sand, as it is mandatory to reserve a buoy.

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“No boat can anchor there, not even on sand. They require you to reserve a buoy. It might have been easier to implement it there since it is within the Ses Salines Natural Park,” he explains.

Talamanca, however, is not part of the Natural Park, which considerably limits the City Council’ s legal possibilities to apply similar restrictions.

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