This morning, four members of the LIFE Salinas team made a visit to the Red Natura 2000 site “Salinas de Santa Pola” (SiteCode ES0000120), located in the “Parc Natural de las Salines de Santa Pola” (Alicante). The team members were Gustavo Ballesteros and Julio Fernández de Salinera Española, Ángel Sallent and Daniel Ibarra from the Department of Geography at the University of Murcia.
The visit was organized by Francisco Martínez, director of the Natural Park, and by Marcos Ferrández, technician of the Vaersa company, in charge of monitoring waterfowl in said Natural Park.
The interest in making this visit is due to the fact that part of the Salinas, specifically those known as Salinas del Pinet, have been managed by the Generalitat Valenciana for years and have several species of larolimicolas reproducing in them, highlighting the colony of Gaviota picofina, Larus geneii, a species that despite being abundant throughout the year does not currently reproduce in the San Pedro del Pinatar salt flats.
During the day the larolimicola colonies were visited and advice was requested on the construction of the artificial islands where they are located, information that was later transferred to the engineers who carry out the artificial islands project planned in the LIFE Salinas for the Coterillo pond.
The Bonmati Salt Flats, adjacent to the previous ones, were also visited, where we could see an example of handling salt puddles, combining the exploitation of salt with the reproduction of various species of waders.