Six environmental organisations, including Gob Mallorca, have called on the Ministry for Ecological Transition (Miteco) to introduce mandatory speed limits for vessels in critical habitats of whales, dolphins in order to reduce the risk of collisions.
ClientEarth, Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, Gob Mallorca, OceanCare and WWF have submitted joint submissions to the preliminary public consultation launched by the ministry to amend Royal Decree 1727/2007, which sets out measures to protect cetaceans in Spanish waters.
The organisations have also warned that any amendment that reduces the current scope of this regulation – both in terms of the areas where it applies and the measures provided for – would, in their view, breach the principle of non-regression by unjustifiably weakening existing protection.
According to the organisations, this Royal Decree is one of the few Spanish legal instruments that specifically implements the obligations arising from the Habitats Directive for the strict protection of cetaceans.
Among the main measures proposed, the six organisations are calling for a mandatory reduction in vessel speed within all critical cetacean habitats identified in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species.
These include the marine protected area and the Specially Protected Area of Importance for the Mediterranean (Zepim) within the Mediterranean Cetacean Migration Corridor, as well as the Strait of Gibraltar, the Alboran Sea and the Canary Islands.
According to the organisations, these areas are internationally recognised for their ecological importance and present a high risk of collisions between vessels and cetaceans; they therefore consider enhanced protection to be necessary.
The organisations point out that the regulations established the so-called Mobile Cetacean Protection Zone, divided into five zones with different levels of protection depending on the distance from the animals.
Its provisions apply to both domestic and foreign vessels operating in areas where cetaceans are present, and to maritime traffic in general within waters subject to Spanish sovereignty, sovereign rights or jurisdiction, including the Exclusive Economic Zone.
The organisations maintain that, since the Royal Decree was passed, maritime traffic has increased across all segments of the fleet – including merchant, passenger and recreational vessels – thereby increasing the impacts on cetaceans.
Among these effects, they highlight collisions with vessels, underwater noise pollution, habitat encroachment, behavioural disturbances and the risk of death, which are compounded by other pressures such as pollution and the increase in tourist and recreational activity along the coast.
The organisations regret that the implementation of the Royal Decree has so far focused primarily on cetacean watching activities, without sufficiently addressing other pressures related to shipping. In addition to speed limits, the organisations propose improving the regulation of cetacean-watching activities by incorporating the most recent international recommendations from the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS).
They also propose developing methodologies to determine the carrying capacity of these activities, taking into account the number of vessels, the frequency of visits, the areas used and the cumulative pressure on different cetacean groups.
Another of their demands is to strengthen monitoring through real-time tracking systems, as well as to create public databases that allow for the comparison of trends in pressures and compliance with regulations.
The organisations are also calling for an effective system of penalties and greater human and technical resources for the authorities responsible for ensuring the protection of these animals.