Kimberley Mannion
THE Ecologists in Action organisation hands out two black flags per province in Spain each year for beaches which are not meeting environmental standards.
The beaches of Nerja have been black flagged due to the impact of sunscreen on them, being an “important polluting agent” when so many sunbathers are flocking to the same beaches and applying it all at once.
Sunscreen contains substances which can act as a polluting agent and be dangerous to the Mediterranean’s marine biodiversity.
This is the first time in the Black Flag’s 17 year history that sunscreen has been cited as a reason to blacklist a beach.
In addition, Ecologists in Action went so far as to mark the entire coastline of Malaga province under a Black Flag.
Malaga is under a Black Flag due to the inaction of municipalities in applying Malaga`s Coastal Protection Strategy.
The strategies in the province-wide plan are voluntary, so it is up to each municipality what it implements in order of its economic interests.
The relaxed nature of the Malaga strategy has led the Ecologists to stick a Black Flag on the entirety of the province.
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