Irish holidaymakers warned over 'black flag' beaches at Spanish hotspots 

Talamanca Beach in Ibiza has been singled out over the catastrophic damage done to underwater plants by boats anchoring illegally off the coast and a treatment plant pumping salty wastewater into the sea. File picture

Irish holidaymakers have been warned against visiting nearly 50 ‘black flag’ beaches in Spain.

Spanish environmental campaign group Ecologists in Action has named and shamed the worst offenders in a report highlighting problems, including chemical pollution, marine waste, over-development and sewage discharges.

Talamanca Beach in Ibiza has been put on the list after being singled out over the catastrophic damage done to underwater plants by boats anchoring illegally off the coast and a treatment plant pumping salty wastewater into the sea.

El Amerador Beach in El Campello just north of Alicante has been given one of Ecologists in Action’s 48 black flags because of disease-causing fecal pollution blamed on a nearby poorly-maintained pumping station.

The organisation highlights two recent instances of human waste entering the sea at the Costa Blanca beach, one in March and one in April.

The Canary Islands, where thousands of locals took to the streets in April in an anti-mass tourism protest to highlight problems including ocean pollution, also get a drubbing in the report.

On the Costa Brava, private boats have been blamed for damaging marine biodiversity.

A spokesman for Ecologists in Action, a grassroots confederation of 300 ecological groups, said: “In Tenerife, 57 million litres of wastewater are discharged directly into the sea every day, equivalent to 17 Olympics swimming pools of polluted water.

“The problem extends to all eight Canary Islands. Underwater outlets are discharging 24/7 365 days a year in all the islands’ archipelago.

More than 90% of the wastewater from urban, industrial and agricultural centres reaches the sea practically without treatment.

The popular Playa Blanca beach in Lanzarote, an island popular with Irish tourists, gets one of the group’s black flags this year because of a sewage spill caused by a pumping station fault which led to the beach's temporary closure in May.

Ecologists in Action warned that this was not the first incident and described it as “common”, saying pumping treatment managers had blamed the problem on people flushing wet wipes and nappies down the toilet instead of putting them in the bin.

Pellets identified as dangerous to marine and human life have been flagged up as a problem on the Costa Dorada in Tarragona, which includes resorts like Salou.

Further north on the Costa Brava, private boats have been blamed for damaging marine biodiversity.