Fewer boats dropped anchor on posidonia, the protected Mediterranean seagrass, off Ibiza and Formentera this summer. Between 15 May and 10 October, the Balearic Government’s posidonia monitoring service checked 71,500 anchored boats around the two islands. Of these, 2,393 had the anchor or chain resting on the meadows, and each was asked to move to a sandy bottom.
Ibiza: from one in five to one in ten
Off Ibiza, 10% of the boats checked were anchored on posidonia: 1,526 out of 15,093. That compares with 21.3% in 2025 and 26.4% in 2018, the year the service began. The patrols also gave information to 2,089 skippers and helped another 1,556 to anchor in the right place.
The busiest anchorages are still a problem. The Government singles out Talamanca, the bay of San Antonio, Cala Bassa, Porroig and Cala Jondal as places that need close watching. It says that where there are few places to moor, the answer is buoy fields, and one is being prepared for Talamanca.
Formentera: the chain is the issue
Formentera saw by far the most patrol activity, with 56,407 anchored boats checked, mainly off Ponent, Llevant, s’Espalmador and Cala Saona. Only 867 were on posidonia. That is 1.5%, down from 2.2% last year and the lowest figure in the Balearics.
In half of those cases (438) the problem was the chain, not the anchor: the anchor sat on sand, but the chain lay across the seagrass. “To anchor without harming the meadows, you have to check that both the anchor and the chain are on sand,” said Joan Simonet, the regional minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and the Natural Environment.
More reports than last year
Inspectors filed 23 infringement reports in Ibiza and Formentera this season: 18 in Ibiza and five in Formentera. In 2025 there were 18. Environmental agents, marine reserve inspectors, the Government’s coastal surveillance service and the Guardia Civil all took part. Across the Balearics there are 76 so far, and the figure may rise because some cases are still being processed.
Across the islands as a whole, 4% of the 137,685 anchored boats checked were on posidonia. That is the lowest share since records began in 2018, when it was 17.3%. The service will continue under Posidonia 2030, a €4.98 million project paid for by the sustainable tourism tax. It will run for two years, with an option to extend it for a third.
