Now, the Town Hall under Mayor Herrera looks like it might actually bring it about, with a 2.5m-euro, EU grant belonging to Next Generation funding.
Almuñécar is not the only municipality within Granada that will receive this ‘helping hand’ as the city of Granada, Guadix and the Geoparque will also receive a ‘sprinkling.’
The underwater park, dotted with replica, sunken ships and ancient buildings, will encompass a seabed area of 10,000 sq/m, in front of the Peñón del Lobo, next to Playa de El Muerto around 200 metres out, at a depth of between 15 and 25 metres.
There will be 309 structures on the bottom, amongst them stone pillars to simulate a sunken building from antiquity. There will also be a slave galley made from concrete (must have been a bugger to row) representing the fleet that went down in a storm in La Herradua Bay in the 1500s
This underwater park has two functions besides the obvious, which is for divers to explore, because it will also protect the seabed from trawler nets.
Editorial Comment: Another idea that Benavides had, which was a good one, was to sink old cars to make artificial reefs. Obviously the wrecks would have all contaminating elements removed first but once down there they would attract fish as a safe haven and gradually desintegrate over the decades.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)