Innovation, science, outreach, and music take center stage at the Marine Forum in Formentera

This Friday, October 25, starting at 10:00 AM, the Marine Forum will hold the next event in the cycle that makes up its sixth edition, moving to Formentera.

At the Nautical Sports Center in the port of La Savina, three projects aimed at the conservation of the Mediterranean will be presented, each from different perspectives and using various approaches.

Marco Mendoza, geographer and CEO of TrueWorld, a Balearic startup specializing in impact monitoring technology, will explain a remote sensing project, inventory, and predictive model of the main waste affecting the islands' coasts, such as illegal anchoring, ghost nets, and other types of waste. This initiative of the General Directorate of Natural Environment and Forest Management of the Balearic Government aims to create a tool to detect marine waste deposits that can be removed from the sea by the relevant administrations and institutions, as marine trash negatively affects biodiversity and its habitats, besides being a threat to human health.

The second presentation will be given by Elisenda Belda, cultural manager and researcher, and Flor Dell’Agnollo, environmentalist and socio-environmental consultant, with their project "Submerged," an educational podcast about the Balearic Sea. Each episode of this series features an element of Mediterranean biodiversity and analyzes the current situation of the species, whether it is affected by climate change, warming waters or pollution, and what solutions exist to improve their condition. It is an audio series aimed at students from the Balearic Islands that opens doors to the dissemination of the need to protect the sea.

The third project is "Posidonia soundscapes and marine conservation," an initiative that combines science, research, and art. Coco Francavilla, an Italian composer and sound engineer based in Ibiza, is working with Neus Pérez Gimeno, a researcher from the Acoustic Engineering Laboratory at the INMAR Marine Research Institute of the University of Cádiz; Txema Brotons, scientific director and founder of TURSIOPS; and Manu San Félix, marine biologist and National Geographic explorer, on a research project that aims to collect sounds from the sea bottom, such as those made by sperm whales in the breeding area around Menorca, or the noise generated by the movement of Posidonia, among others, classify them and make them available to composers and music producers. This way, the conservationist message is brought to a global audience through this art form.

"At the Marine Forum, throughout the six editions held, different languages have always been included that aim to disseminate the protection, conservation, and regeneration of the Balearic Sea. The Promotional Team formed by IbizaPreservation, Marilles Foundation, Pacha Foundation, OD Hotels, The White Angel, Trasmapi, Marina Ibiza, and the Vellmarí association, since 2018, has worked to create an event open to society, an independent showcase offered as a space to amplify the actions and projects focused on reversing the fragile situation of the Mediterranean," said Antonio Martínez Beneyto, coordinator of the Marine Forum.

The program can be consulted on the foromarino.org website. The event is free and open to everyone until full capacity is reached; no prior registration is required.