Unwanted seaweed put to good use

THE presence of posidonia oceanic – Neptune grass – is a reliable bio-indicator of goodquality coastal waters.

Almeria has some of the most extensive and best conserved underwater meadows in the Mediterranean and each summer tons of the seaweed, washed up by storms, is removed from Almeria’s beaches.

This is later taken to a landfill site or dumped on waste land, even though in Ibiza, for instance, it is removed but later used to protect beaches in the winter from erosion caused by storms. By replacing the posidonia in the winter, sand that was removed with the seaweed is also returned to the beaches.

In the five years since Ibiza introduced the practice, its beaches have grown between five and six metres.