Ecologists in Action have awarded two “Black Flags” to beaches on La Graciosa.
The ecological organisation has published its annual Black Flag list for Spain, which is intended as an environmental response to the Blue Flag list that appears a few weeks earlier. Included on this year’s list is the Playa de Caleta de Sebo, the “town beach” of La Graciosa’s capital, as well as the Playa de la Francesa, a little further along the coast.
The announcement intends to highlight the damage that is being done by 300,000 annual visitors to an island where only 720 people live.
According to Ecologists in Action, the beach in Caleta de Sebo is in a “poor state of conservation”, with waste from boats, beach users and restaurants contributing to pollution.
At Playa de la Francesa they warn of the problem of catamaran tours that arrive at the site “holding parties, meals, games, and contests with loud music and leaving waste behind on the sand and in the water.”
They claim that catamaran passengers throw chicken scraps to birds, mainly seagulls, which can hit the hulls of the boats while trying to catch them and throw leftover rice into the sea to feed the fish.
Last year, Ecologists in Action awarded a black flag to Playa Blanca town beach after incidences of sewage leaks. Playa Blanca is one of just two Lanzarote beaches which retained its Blue Flag this year.
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