Mar Menor faces slow ecological recovery amid ongoing pollution

The Mar Menor lagoon in Spain's Murcia region is facing a prolonged ecological crisis. After the ‘green soup’ phenomenon of 2016, the ecosystem is now struggling with a ‘white patch’ that covers 9% of its surface, obstructing life beneath it.

Environmental journalist Miguel Ángel Ruiz, in his book ‘Misses y medusas’, notes that the recovery process will be extremely slow, stating, “What has been destroyed in 50 years we cannot expect to recover in one year, or two, or four.” The degradation is largely attributed to intensive agriculture and the runoff of nitrates and fertilizers, a disaster predicted as early as 1979 by engineer Miguel Ángel García Dory regarding the Tajo-Segura water transfer.

While the Ministry for the Ecological Transition has launched a priority action plan funded with 675 million euros, challenges remain. Recent regional legislative reforms aimed at reducing sanctions for polluting agricultural companies have been criticized as a setback for environmental protection.