Swiss Ocean Tech’s Suzy Chisholm explains how increasingly strict EU regulations threaten to restrict anchoring access for large yachts in the Med…
Attention, yacht captains, particularly those navigating vessels over 24 metres in the Mediterranean. The degradation of Posidonia meadows has reached alarming levels, prompting intervention by local, national, and international bodies, as well as marine conservation organisations.
Posidonia, a seagrass unique to the Mediterranean found within 40 metres of the shoreline, plays a crucial ecological role but the estimated regression of these meadows has amounted to 34% in the last 50 years. These meadows reduce wave intensity by 20% on adjacent coastlines and serve as habitats and breeding grounds for over 400 plant and 1000 animal species. They also contribute significantly to the Mediterranean Sea’s oxygen supply and act as an effective carbon sink, capturing ten times more CO2 than terrestrial forests.