Mar Menor now a 'legal person': How the public saved a heavenly sea

ONE of south-eastern Spain's most unusual and popular coastal enclaves is the first to be given 'legal personality' in history – meaning it automatically has 'rights' at law.

Normally, humans and corporations or other organisations, profit- or non-profit-making, hold 'legal personality', which means they are responsible for their actions at law as an individual or collective, and that they have specific rights as well as duties – but a body of water in the public domain has never before been recognised in this way.

The aim is to ensure the Mar Menor enjoys the 'fundamental right' to conservation and protection, and its status has been approved by the Senate following a petition started two years ago that has gathered over 600,000 signatures.

Organisers of this petition filed what is known as a People's Legislative Initiative (ILP) calling for the Mar Menor to be granted legal rights and be considered an 'entity' at law.

Curious geography of Europe's largest salt lake

The Mar Menor, in the single-province region of Murcia, is generally thought of as a sea coast, but in practice, it is the largest salt lake in Europe.

It is land-bordered on three-and-a-half sides, so it is fed by the Mediterranean but almost entirely enclosed.

The thin strip or istmus that 'closes' the Mar Menor off from the Mediterranean is 21 kilometres (13 miles) long, but only between 100 metres (109.3 yards, or 328 feet) and 1.2 kilometres (three-quarters of a mile) wide.

Centuries ago, it was wider still – remains of Roman settlements have been found submerged either side.

It is often referred to as a miniature Baja California, except that its tip rejoins the land.

Known as La Manga del Mar Menor, the northern part of the strip belongs to the towns of San Javier, San Pedro del Pinatar, and Los Alcázares, and the southern part to Cartagena.

It extends from the San Pedro del Pinatar salt and sand flats in the north down to the volcanic Cabo de Palos bay and lighthouse in the south.

The Mar Menor's waters are warmer than the nearest open part of the Mediterranean, all year round, meaning it has long been a destination of choice for those seeking respite from joint and muscle pain.

Unsurprisingly, this, coupled with the endless spa resorts and golf courses along the Murcia Region coast, means the Mar Menor area is hugely popular with tourists, with northern European expatriates, and as a holiday home or sunshine retirement hotspot.

When the sea can't breathe: Why the Mar Menor needs special protection

Long known as a holiday paradise, even – and especially, in fact – in winter, the Mar Menor has been under serious threat on occasion in the past three years, displaying the classic signs of what happens to a marine ecosystem if society in general does not respect its environment.

Pollution through industrial and agricultural leakage, nitrates, excess salt from desalination plants, motorboats, plastic waste and other phenomena toxic to the sea, together with over-fishing, all of which would take a long time to create a visible, negative impact in the huge expanses of the world's oceans, took their toll very quickly on this microcosm of them.

The water became cloudy, meaning natural light could not get through to the marine floor, causing the meadows of ground-covering aquatic plants to dry up, die off and disappear.

Posidonia Oceanica – Mediterranean Tapeweed, or Neptune Grass, found at the bottom of Spain's eastern seas - acts in the same way as trees do on dry land: It 'eats' carbon dioxide and pumps out oxygen, meaning it is vital to the water's health.

Without this plant life, the Murcia inland sea literally ran out of oxygen.

This, known as marine anoxia, meant the creatures endemic to the Mar Menor also died off.

The result was hundreds of thousands of dead fish washing up on the shores in 2019.

Concerted effort to stop it happening again

Petitions calling for action to revive the 'dying sea' did lead to steps being taken, but with the environmental crisis so far advanced, existing laws were insufficient to guarantee its protection or reverse the damage permanently.

Now, this has all changed. Giving the Mar Menor a 'legal personality' means not only does the State and the regional government have a duty to guarantee its health, but the general public is legally committed to preserving it.

Marine anoxia in the Mar Menor has come in episodes, rather than being a continuous state – at times of low industrial, agricultural or tourism activity, the water has become clearer and plant life recovering, restoring oxygen which enables the fish to survive.

Conservation programmes are aimed at dramatically reducing the impact of these activities on the enclosed sea, to prevent further cases of oxygen loss.

Solutions might mean restricting watersports that involve motorised craft, only allowing those craft that run on emissions-free power, rechannelling waste output – perhaps by redirecting rivers or diverting outfall to controlled areas on land – holding industry accountable for pollution, community beach clean-up days where volunteers collect and sort rubbish for recycling, and ongoing monitoring.

“A sea can't have rights, because it can't have obligations”

The entire Senate voted unanimously for the Mar Menor's new status, with the exception of the far-right independent party Vox, whose representative José Marín Gascón said an 'ecosystem cannot be considered a subject with rights' since a 'legal personality' also has 'obligations'.

Marín Gascón argued that 'legal personality' means automatic 'rights and duties' – that you cannot just have rights - and that 'duties' or 'obligations' could not be conferred on a sea.

But socialist Senator Fernando Lastra said the move was necessary to ensure protection for one of Spain's, and Europe's, most ecologically valuable enclaves where environmental legislation in place did not go far enough.

Lastra called the move 'a success' on the part of the community, and a sign of what ordinary society can achieve when it feels strongly enough about an issue.