The Catalan Water Agency's begins coastal waters campaign with all beaches with excellent quality

Costa Dorada. The Catalan Water Agency has launched this week the development of the summer campaign through the implementation of prevention programs for monitoring, cleaning and information from the beaches and coastal waters. As every year, the objectives of this device are focused on protecting, preserving and enhancing the natural environment and quality of coastal marine environment, to act preventively to incidents caused by natural phenomena or resulting from human activities, intervene and respond to natural events and pollution, to ensure, in terms of public health and ecosystem quality, compliance with European Directive 2006/7/EC of bathing waters and the Water Framework Directive 2000/60 / EC, and publicly report the results of the quality of beaches and coastal waters. It is expected that during the campaign this year conducted 16,000 inspections in Catalonian beaches analyzing a minimum of 4,250 samples of water from the bathroom and make about 1,200 shipments weekly results to the coastal municipalities. It also provides weekly updates to 17 the results of the quality of the beaches on the website of the ACA. 100% of beaches with excellent quality The analytical developed during the first week of control (period from 26 May to 1 June) indicated that 100% of the beaches (218 in total) have obtained excellent quality. Presence of jellyfish on the Costa Dorada The presence of jellyfish during this period of control has been widespread along the coast. On specific days and on some beaches, its presence has been important, especially on the coast of Tarragona. The most observed has been Aequorea forskalea (some stinging). 73 beaches and an indoor swimming area on the Costa Dorada For 21 consecutive year, the beginning of summer marks the start of the program to monitor and report the status of beaches and bathing areas, within which periodic inspections are carried out to the beaches and swimming areas and water analytical tests bathroom. On the beaches, one day a week, collect samples of sea water in bathing areas the monitoring frequency is fortnightly. In each of these water samples, we evaluate the microbiological quality of bathing water. The surveillance network of beaches, up 245 checkpoints set at 218 beaches (79 in Girona, 66 in Barcelona and 73 in Tarragona). As for inland bathing areas, the control period is from June 26 to August 21 and the monitoring network consists of 12 bathing areas (3 in Girona, 3 in Barcelona, 5 in Lleida and 1 in Tarragona). More than 40 ships and aircraft to monitor the status of the beaches In the coastal rainy season this year, boats will be available prevention and cleaning of a small plane for eleven consecutive weeks from 23 June to 3 September, ensure the quality of coastal waters and to reduce presence of dirt and debris on our shores. 2010 Medusa Project The Catalan Water Agency, in collaboration with the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (ICM) is developing the Medusa Project, an initiative to research, information and monitoring of the proliferation of jellyfish in the Catalan coast. After three years of joint work, we have determined what species of jellyfish come to our shores, what their life cycle (playing some species in the aquariums of ICM, global pioneer in fact) and what factors determine the presence certain points along the coast, among others. In addition, the ACA, with the cooperation and support of local councils, rescue services and first aid, fishermen's associations and users of recreational boats, has woven a network of information to determine the presence of jellyfish in the Catalan coast and Which beaches can be seen copies. This allows daily during the campaign of coastal waters can be reported on the possible presence of jellyfish on our shores.

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