Bushfires raging in summer are a site for sore eyes, complete and unforgiving annihilation of everything in their path. Just like the recent fires we have had here in Mallorca, destroying everything in an area of approximately 23sq km. We can thank our lucky stars that no people were killed in this inferno. The aftermath we are left with is gut-wrenching, the fact these are pine forests means their recovery will be a very long term process that may or may not be a 100%.

Most of you know me by now, the Aussie so called “hippie” who is trying to raise awareness, help protect and improve our amazingly beautiful marine environments. So why I am writing about the Mallorquin fires? 

I want to raise the point of “Out of site, out of mind” which is the case with our sea and what lies beneath the surface. As well as make a comparison between land and sea devastation.

Many people who live in Mallorca do get their heads underwater either with a mask and snorkel or SCUBA gear, but I would have to say the majority of people do not. So, it makes it hard for people to understand what is really happening underwater here. It is so much easier for us to see the fire damage on land and compare the damage to what was there originally. There have been photos and blogs all over the Internet lately so you don’t even need to go there yourself, it is common knowledge how devastating the fires have been.

Please keep in mind I have been involved in serious bushfires back home and this one here in Mallorca has brought back some very nasty memories for me. I fully support the care and attention these damaged areas of forest are receiving from local people and the local government. 

However, I would like to share some information regarding damage caused by bottom trawling boats here in the Balearics and the damage they do to catch our seafood, particularly while the fire damage is fresh in our minds.

Here are some basic facts that I have received from our good friends at Oceana:

•Bottom Trawling is a destructive fishing method. They drag their nets with heavy doors across the seabed, destroying benthic habitats in their path, whose integrity is in many cases crucial for the survival of commercial species

•Bottom trawlers make up only 13% of the Balearic Fishing fleet

•Bottom trawlers produce 61% of catches 64% of first sale revenues over the total extractive fishing of the Balearics 

•Every year in the Balearic Promontory a sea floor is trawled equivalent, as a minimum, to the total surface area emerging from the islands

•Bottom trawlers create less direct jobs for locals than traditional artisanal fisheries

So what’s all that mean to us? Well to me it means a small number of fishing boats are doing a huge amount of damage that we cannot see hence we don’t really react to.  The best thing we can do is to stop buying seafood caught by Bottom Trawlers, that’s tough as the majority of seafood here in the Balearics is caught this way.

The two points I want to make clear in this short article are that we all really need to open our eyes, our minds and our hearts to what is being destroyed in our underwater backyard, because as the fires have proven, we all really care! 

Secondly, a comparison to the surface area damage caused by the fire to the bottom trawler damage, which as you can see by the photos leave exactly the same devastating aftermath, nothing! 

23sq km´s of forest destroyed in a few days or weeks on land, once. Nearly 5000sq km´s of marine floor damaged every year. That is the equivalent to just over 200 separate bushfires every single year.

As a caring community would we allow this to happen on land? I don’t think so! Then why do we let it happen to the seafloor?

Bottom trawling techniques to catch our fish are about as practical and environmentally friendly as cutting down an entire forest to catch rabbits.

The only way we will ever change this unfathomable fact is through changing our demand for seafood, my faith in us adults is thin, the hope lies with our children, the education on marine destruction due to overfishing needs to be much clearer in schools and at home. Asociación Ondine are not the only group that cares, there are a few organizations doing a great job, we need more people to assist in the public awareness process for our kids, then we have a good chance of change.

I would like to thank the Oceana team for all the information they sent me whilst researching this topic, as well as the photos they very happily shared. With teamwork between large conservation groups like Oceana and small ones like Asociacion Ondine our seas will have a much better chance of recovery.