Ecologistas en Acción has brought up a new warning about coves in protected areas, this time concerning the use of suntan lotion.

The protected natural park of Los Acantilados de Maro/Cerro Gordo see nearly 40,000 beachgoers on one of its beaches, Playa Cantarriján, during the summer, and great pains are taken to protect the area.

Ecologists have raised the alarm on more than one occasion when they come across activities that are prejudicial to the flora and fauna and this time it is an usual one.

What worries the Ecologists (GENA) is that sun-barrier cream is contaminating the waters off the beaches, thus endangering the “fragile ecosystem in this protected area.”

For this reason they have sent a scientific finding to the provincial delegate for the Central Government, suggesting that coves in the Maro area be closed to the public as a preventative measure.

They say that the coves are sheltered from currents along coastline because of land projections either side, which reduces the renewal of the water in front of the coves, more or less.

In every study carried out, they consider, it consistently shows that these sun-filter products cause a “considerable, eco-toxicological impact” on both the flora and the fauna (both vertebrate and invertebrate), especially in phytoplankton and Zooplankton.

(News: Maro, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)