Formentera Council chair Jaume Ferrer and deputy chair Susana Labrador were joined this morning by José Manuel Alcaraz, Anna Juan and Omar Juan, secretaries of the PP, PSOE and Compromís, respectively, for a visit of the offices that will soon be occupied by the local opposition parties.

The three offices, one per group, are located next to the post office on carrer Pla del Rei in Sant Francesc. The spaces are ready for their occupants, who are set to move in and begin work next week.

The Formentera Council's environment office reports on the most recent raft of actions performed last week by the environmental group GEN-GOB aimed at advancing a broader, on-the-ground effort already under way to promote sustainable management of posidonia seagrass meadows. That project, titled “Posidonia and sustainable marine strategies on Formentera”, is being funded by money raised in the first year of the Save Posidonia Project.

Those involved in the push, which began in July, hope to gauge the strain that anchoring watercraft place on nearby meadows of Posidonia oceanica seagrass and assess the extent of preservation.

Work last week involved using drones to capture photos of all the ships anchored in Formentera's waters.

On Wednesday August 29 two drones flew over a large portion of the island's seaboard in an effort to map and measure the ships stationed there and determine if they were anchored on seagrass meadows.

Two outside firms specialised in drone operations were enlisted in sizing up the areas of the island's coast which receive the most maritime traffic. One operative piloted a drone as it flew over Punta Pedrera, es caló de s’Oli and s’Espalmador, then directed it towards Punta Prima and es Pujols beach. The second pilot used a drone to photograph three areas—Migjorn between Punta de l'Anguila and es Copinar; Tramuntana beach between es Racó de sa Pujada and cala en Baster/es Quintalar; and cala Saona between Punta Rasa and es caló d'en Trull.

The operatives worked from noon till six in the evening, taking into account the particulars of each area, such as the times when ses Illetes tends to receive the greatest number of visitors, or when the number of boats at cala Saona typically levels off.

The waters between ses Illetes and s'Espalmador were home to the greatest number of watercraft.

While it is still too early for a definitive tally, a provisional survey of watercraft anchored in the island's least trafficked area found 90 boats in cala Saona, 10 in Migjorn and 24 between es Caló and es Racó de sa Pujada.