Seabed cleanup days in Puerto Banús

Every six months, a specialized team of divers and land support carries out activities to remove from the pontoons all waste that may fall from the ships or from the port itself.

The cleaning of a port’s seabed is essential not only to maintain the port’s depth, but also to preserve the biodiversity found in the environment.

This activity has been carried out for many years in Puerto Banús; however, we have recently carried out a program of seabed cleaning days with the aim of developing an awareness of the huge amount of waste that ends up in the sea and in the waters of the pontoons of the port.

Puerto Banus wants its employees, customers, users and visitors to be more aware of the amount of unnatural elements that end up thrown into the sea – intentionally or accidentally – so that we act in a more responsible way in order to avoid the maximum pollution of the sea and damage to marine species found in the area.

These bottom cleaning days are held every six months (twice a year), involving a team of twelve workers, including sailors, cleaning crew, office staff and volunteers. Generally, in Puerto Banús we schedule them before the beginning of the high season, and the second cleaning of the year just after the end of the summer season, which is usually in the month of October.

During a whole morning, a total of six divers search for polluting elements at the bottom of the sea, collecting all this material and depositing it in a boat, where our land support team is located, who accumulate and separate all the waste found in the boat.

Once the day of searching and cleaning the seabed of the harbor pontoons is over, the whole team goes to the dry dock area to distribute the different elements found in their respective containers for proper treatment and recycling: metals, plastics, glass or crystal, and even hazardous and highly polluting waste to be deposited in our Punto Limpio.

«Every year more than 6.4 million tons of waste end up in the sea»

The importance of bottom cleaning for the sustainable development of the environment and the port itself, is key and strategic in the commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their fulfillment.

One of the main objectives of these cleanings is to recover the seabed, deteriorated due to the passage of nautical and urban time, facilitating with these processes and activities its colonization of biota and CO2 capture, without waste that pollute or colonize the seabed. It also aims to free the waters of Puerto Banús of waste and help conserve and preserve marine biodiversity on the Costa del Sol.

This seabed cleaning activity, under normal circumstances in which there is no pandemic, Puerto Banus extends the invitation to the families of employees, as well as visitors and citizens of Marbella to join as volunteers, supporting during the day to clean the breakwaters and the seawall.

We invite you to join a different and entertaining activity that directly helps the environment and the preservation of our biodiversity.