Up to 48 beaches on the Spanish coast have received the Black Flag from Ecologists in Action, the badge with which the most significant cases of pollution and environmental mismanagement of the coasts are denounced. Among the reasons used by this organization: spills, chemical contamination, effects on biodiversity, accumulation of marine garbage or dredging and port expansions without justification.
However, in their latest report, environmentalists point to a new problem that had not been reported to date: the proliferation of designated dog beaches without a prior environmental impact assessment.
Environmentalists regret that walking dogs through natural environments has become a very popular activity around the world, which poses “a series of environmental problems and challenges” that must be addressed responsibly by administrations and society. .
This is the case of A Calzoa beach (Vigo), designated as a dog beach without having foreseen the serious environmental impact that has been generated. That is why it has received one of the 48 black flags.
This organization recalls that numerous scientific studies show the high impact that walking with dogs causes on coastal fauna, mainly birds, “because it is the exclusive habitat for feeding, resting and reproduction for many of them”, although the negative effects of This activity is quantified well above the rest of the types of annoyances analyzed.
According to Ecologistas en Acción, “it is not about demonizing any animal, nor the people who accompany them, but about understanding the interaction that occurs between them: the birds perceive the dog as a predator and the dog perceives them as prey. When we allow a dog to chase birds, even if they don’t catch them, we cause them significant stress, we prevent or make it difficult for them to obtain food, we deprive them of rest and we force them to invest a high energy expenditure in having to flee”.
Faced with this situation, ecologists ask that the administrations put environmental criteria before authorizing canine sandbanks: “The beaches considered to be of lesser tourist value are selected, which paradoxically tend to coincide with those with the greatest ecological value.”
According to this year’s report, black flags are repeated for ecological attacks that seemed to be on the way to being solved, but whose resolution “is lethargic in the administrative process, when not trapped in the judicial labyrinth that results from legislation guaranteeing those who commit the offence”. This is the case of the illegal occupation of public land by Petronor in the Barbadun estuary, or the extension of the concession to the ENCE pulp mill on the banks of the Pontevedra estuary, denounce environmentalists.
Of the 48 black flags, six of them in Galicia, there are 2 for dredging and port expansions without justification; 3 due to accumulation of marine litter; 6 due to effects on biodiversity and many others due to chemical or light pollution; 12 for spills; and 17 for the urbanization of the coast.
