The NGO Innoceana has been working since 2018 in Tenerife. The first Innomapas project won, co-financed by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, with which these young people were able to study and analyze the seabed found from the Port of Granadilla to Punta Rasca. The second edition of this project was carried out between the San Andrés and Antequera areas, which can only be accessed by boat or on foot.
To do this, Innoceana has trained more than 80 people who have participated in data collection through diving and snorkeling. In addition, it has developed an innovative methodology for mapping this ecosystem with the use of aerial drones and underwater 3D modeling. Studies that, according to the director of this NGO and civil engineer, Carlos Mallo, and Alicia Rodríguez, coordinator and marine biologist, have made it possible to see the state of the sebadales in Tenerife, which they define as “the great lungs of the Island” and from which Mallo draws several conclusions. “The sebadales are great producers of oxygen that allow the existence of many species. The biggest problem we have come across in the Antequera area, in addition to rubbish, which is something that worries us a great deal, and which is becoming more and more common, is the erosion caused by the moorings of large ships, which the anchor to the sea and that the sebadales destroy and uproot”, they indicate.
Mallo continues explaining that “this is something that is supposed to be controlled, but the truth is that it is only done on paper. At the moment of truth there is no one who is aware of this. If the sebadales and the sand disappear, the species and peoples that are on the coasts, which we like so much, will also disappear, ”says the engineer, who, in turn, proposes installing regulatory fixed anchorages, outside the sebadal area , to facilitate the mooring of recreational boats to prevent erosion of the sebadal. Innoceana has decided to offer all these conclusions and proposals on a free, interactive web platform, suitable for all audiences, in which there are also virtual reality videos or a story for children called The Treasures of the Sebadal, which explores, in an interactive and audiovisual, the wonders that citizens can find in this precious ecosystem.
You can also see a documentary about a possible future without sebadales, or the book Los Angeles del Mar, which tells the story of Ángel, the adventurous angel shark from La Mancha, who travels to the Northwest of Tenerife in search of adventure. Added to this are different maps of the Island’s seabed, where these plants can be found, and valuable information that seeks to raise awareness among the population.
A platform that can be visited at the link https://innoceana.org/es/innomapas-2/ and that invites the population to meet the sebadales in person so that they are aware of the marine wealth that exists in the waters of the Archipelago.
a marine treasure
Sebadales, also known as manchones by some Canarian fishermen, are plants that live under the sea, which, unlike algae, have roots, stems and leaves. They grow on shallow sandy bottoms of coastlines and their existence is very important. They play a role similar to that of Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea. And it is that they are responsible for absorbing carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, and are home to numerous marine species, many in critical danger of extinction. Hence, experts constantly insist on their conservation, and ensure that they are the great lungs of the ocean. In the sebasales it is common to see species such as the dogfish shark, the angel shark, the pipe fish, the green turtle, the spider fish, the old ones, the mongrels, and the mantles, among others.
For a long time and more and more, in the Canary Islands, the sebadales are being seriously threatened by the action of man. So much so that they have come to disappear, for example, on the island of El Hierro and La Palma. For this reason, Non-Governmental Organizations such as Innoceana, which works in four countries and is made up of young people from different specialties, works every day to teach and make the population aware of the importance of conserving the seabed and the sebadales, which they are included in the Spanish Catalog of Endangered Species in the category of vulnerable. For this, they develop innovative projects that help change the mentality of governments and citizens and, in turn, improve the situation in which our seas and oceans find themselves.
SOLUTIONS
How to stop the destruction of the sebadales? Mallo replies that the best way is to “stop building on the island’s coast, which is already highly exploited, improve wastewater treatment, which is a real problem in the Canary Islands, not throwing garbage into the sea, and living without turning its back on it, understanding that those macro-hotels that are built, above all, in the southern part of the Island, do not bring any wealth, but rather destroy and end the future of the following generations”, Mallo underlines.
The director of Innoceana takes the opportunity to send a message to the population. “I only ask that, for a moment, you reflect on the wonders that we have under the sea. People from all over the world come to the Canary Islands to see the sebadales and the seabed. If we were able to fall in love with them as foreigners do, we would not allow emissaries, for example, to release wastewater into the sea as they do, or we would not allow the macroports that are built to be built. On many occasions they deceive us with a development that is not sustainable and we do nothing to avoid it”, says Mallo.
COLLABORATIONS
An organization like Inoceana, in addition to the support it receives from public administrations through the projects it carries out, also needs the help that can be provided through a subscription to the exclusive news generated by Innoceana, or by joining the NGO as a member and payment of a fee. The third option is to make donations to it. Thanks to these collaborations, it can carry out research and conservation projects such as the one developed in the sebadales.
