A shell measures only a few centimeters. Not that, in some cases. That is why it is normal to take a small snail or a valve home seems a harmless act and without the greatest significance. It is. The problem is when that small act is multiplied by thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or thousands of millions, which adds the visits that humanity makes to the beaches of the planet over a year. With this data on the table the ‘stolen’ shells to the sands do become a challenge, one capable of altering ecosystems.
Granite granite is made a beach … And it gets rid.
A quick (and devastating) calculation. In the world we live around 8,000 million people and (almost) we all share a hobby: go to the beach, take long walks through the sand, sunbathe, bathe and why not? Go home with a little shell in your pocket as a memory. After all, what’s wrong with? The act is innocent if we look only at what we do, but the thing changes when we expand the perspective and we put accounts, which was recently a Florida researcher in an interview with The country.
“There are almost 10,000 million visits to beaches annually and almost certainly,” explains Michał Kowalewski, a researcher specialized in the invertebrate study. “Let’s say that a shell is collected for every hundred visits, which sounds at little, but even so we would be talking about 10,000 tons of shells that disappear from the beaches every year.” In summary, a full -fledged marine plunder with which several Olympic pools could be filled to the top.
Are there more calculations? Yes. A few years ago Kowalewski participated in a study with experts from the University of Barcelona (UB) that helps to understand what the bathers take home Conchas. His analysis is interesting because part of a very concrete sand, Saolu’s Long Beach, in Tarragona, where the influx of tourists has tripled since the 70s. To know how that boom is affecting the area, experts compared two sampling of shells taken with enough margin: the first date of 1978-1981, the second of 2008-2010.
What did they find out? That that greater pressure from the bathers was taking its toll on the Reserve of Conchas. And for worse. “The increase in tourism on the Mediterranean coast is related to a 70% decrease in shells during the tourist season of July and August and 60% the rest of the year,” summary from the UB. The area in which they focused their efforts is interesting because the influx of tourists increased 2.7 times during the study period and the analyzes show that the abundance of shells along the coast fell almost to the same extent, 2.6.
Is everything due to tourism? The study, published in 2023 in the academic magazine PLOS Oneemphasizes the influence of tourism and its considerable increase between the end of the 70s and early 21st century, but that is not the only factor that has influenced the beach ecosystem. During the three decades that passed between both samples the urban environment of the beach was altered with new hotels and also varied the use and maintenance of the environment.
“The correlation could also respond to the increase in water turbidity because there are more recreational vessels or for organic pollution, or the elimination of shells for daily cleaning services, among other reasons,” recognize the Catalan experts, who insist on the need for “more studies”, especially in areas where tourists look for shells actively due Indonesia
Why is it important? Because shells are more than whims of nature or potential souvenirs. “They are not there by chance, they are part of the natural gear that keeps our beaches alive and stable,” he clarifies in The country Fernando García, one of those responsible for the Malacological Collection of the National Museum of Natural Sciences. The shells help the sands retain their firmness and resist erosion and even influence the acidity of the water.
Much more than souvenirs: homes. “The disappearance of shells could have a significant impact on the natural environment, causing alterations in the stabilization of the coastline and a decrease in the production of carbonated sediments, among others,” they emphasize in the UB. Not to mention that the shells serve to look more than look in our nightstand. There are birds that use them to build nests and serve as a refuge for different organisms.
An extra reason: the law. There is one more reason to think twice to fill the shell pockets. In addition to damaging the environment can damage our economy. As Legals recently recalled, technically the law of coasts does not allow “elements of the maritime-terrestrial domain” and that includes mollusks, stones, sand and shells. “This activity can lead to a penalty of up to 60,000 euros according to the damage value,” he warns.
“Irreparable damage”. At the beginning of 2022, the Fuerteventura Cabildo acknowledged that in just four months (and not precisely high season) the island authorities had seized more than 4,500 kilos of shells, rodolitos, stones and sand. Hence, remember the local population and tourists “the importance of avoiding practices such as the plundering of materials.”
“Every year the environment personnel return thousands of kilos of this type of Majorero landscape materials that recover from the plunder at the Fuerteventura airport,” insists the agency, which points out that the material that is most seized is white sand (640 kg) and black (309 kg). “Insular ecosystems are fragile, so any bad condition can be as irreparable damage.”
Images | Carlos Alejo (Flickr) and Art of Hoping (UNSPLASH)
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