In its first year of life, the Torredembarra Biotop, Tarragona, has attracted more than 250 marine organisms that have colonized it and made this artificial construction a place to live.
It is the first artificial underwater mountain formed by calcium carbonate rocks. Built with more than 40,000 tons of this natural material, its base is located 32 meters deep and has a height of 18 meters. It is a Natural Art Reef project that has the support of the Port of Torredembarra and the collaboration of BMW Group Spain. The Ministry of the Environment of the Generalitat of Catalonia gave a concession to carry out this initiative and the Ministry of the Environment gave its approval.
With this construction, an underwater area has been created that is, at the same time, a marine research center and a diving and species observation area.
Another 10 reefs have been located around the main facility (whose construction and installation has been facilitated by BMW Group Spain), which are also structures that provide shelter to marine species, encourage their proliferation and have the function of marking the area to the safe practice of scuba diving in the Biotope environment.
Diving and marine research
All of this makes this project a multidisciplinary platform for scientific studies on marine biodiversity and ecological restoration, as well as an area for training, awareness and citizen science, in which 2,000 divers have already been able to closely observe the life that the structure houses. , and collected scientific data.
An example of this is the mutualistic cleaning between the sunfish (Mola mola) and the chub (Spondyliosoma canthaurus). A behavior that has now been documented for the first time.
Also the mussel, whose presence in the area in the last three decades had decreased drastically, is once again present on the coast of Torredembarra thanks to the conditions found in this structure.
In addition, 13 small gorgonians (Eunicella singularis) have already been observed, one of the most characteristic corals of the Mediterranean. Their presence, important in itself, is valuable because these corals are the subject of numerous conservation actions and creators of habitats in which a wide variety of marine species shelter, feed and reproduce.
Additionally, as fishing is prohibited in the structure, egg laying of commercial species of cephalopods, such as squid (Loligo vulgaris), octopus (Octopus vugaris) and cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), have been recorded this year.
The presence of protected species of fish, crustaceans and algae, some even threatened with extinction, highlights the importance of the mountain as a crucial refuge for their conservation.