The massification in the Balearic Sea to see the eclipse, a reality: what will be its consequences?

PalmaThe Balearic Sea also suffered the overcrowding caused by the solar eclipse. Images captured during the day by the Civil Guard show entire stretches of coast packed with boats, with thousands of boats anchored a short distance from each other and a particularly high density in some of the points with the best visibility of the phenomenon. A scene that turns into reality one of the main concerns that experts and environmental organizations had expressed before the eclipse: the possibility that the tourist overcrowding that is usually experienced on land would also extend to the sea.

Before the day, estimates pointed out that more than 10,000 boats could go sailing in the waters of the Balearic Islands. It was a forecast and not an official count – it is not possible to know exactly how many boats went to sea – but the images of the eclipse suggest that this figure could have been reached and even surpassed.

A crowd that leaves a mark

The problem with this extraordinary concentration of boats is that the overcrowding does not end when the boats disappear from the horizon. One of the main risks is the impact of anchors on seagrass meadows, especially in shallow and more frequented areas. Before the eclipse, experts and environmental organizations were already warning that a massive departure of boats could cause an increase in anchoring on these meadows and cause damage that can take decades to recover.

Seagrass is particularly vulnerable to this pressure. A single anchor can tear away an area of the meadow that takes years to regrow, so the multiplication of anchorings on the same day can have a considerable impact.

But mass tourism also implies more pressure on the marine ecosystem: more boats, more engines, more noise, more waste, and more possibilities of fuel or dirty water spills. What for a while was an unheard-of image – a sea completely dotted with boats – is also the photograph of a coastline subjected to extraordinary pressure.

The sea, turned into another overcrowded space

The scene also has a peculiarity: the overcrowding of the sea occurred while the administrations were precisely trying to avoid overcrowding on land. For days, traffic restrictions, access controls, and official observation areas were prepared to prevent the most sensitive natural spaces in Mallorca and the rest of the islands from becoming overloaded.

At sea, on the other hand, thousands of boats were able to find their own viewpoint. There was no capacity limit for the waters nor a barrier that prevented concentration in areas with better visibility. And the result is what the images show: an extraordinarily crowded sea, with boats anchored practically side by side.

The day also left incidents. Salvament Marítim (Maritime Rescue) had to intervene in several episodes, including the fire of a boat in Cala Pi, with three people rescued, and the rescue of an inflatable boat that was sinking in Ibiza. The maritime operation had been reinforced precisely in anticipation of an exceptional day, with dozens of personnel, boats from Salvament Marítim and the Red Cross, and the Helimer helicopter.

The eclipse lasted a little over a minute. The overcrowding, however, lasted for hours. And while the images of a sea full of white dots will remain as one of the most spectacular scenes of the day, they also open up an uncomfortable question about the limits of the Balearic Islands' capacity: to what extent can the coast withstand a new massive concentration of boats without the environmental cost being too high?