Ecology and biodiversity

Natural spaces and protected species

The Port of Barcelona ensures that port activity and works interfere as little as possible with ecosystems and populations of birds and other species. Both the port area and its immediate surroundings.

Interaction with the environment

Thanks to the proactive intervention of the Department of the Environment of the Barcelona Port Authority, a total of 8,000 m² within the port area can be considered dedicated to the conservation and promotion of biodiversity.

Beyond the port

But also, the proximity of the Integral Reserve of the Llobregat Delta also obliges the Port of Barcelona to take extreme precautions and take a decision to protect spaces and species beyond the limits of the port.

Bird control

Some species of birds must be controlled due to the inconvenience and damage they can cause in port facilities. This is the case of pigeons and seagulls. For the latter, since 2000 a dissuasive control has been carried out at the terminal piers through loudspeakers that emit continuous appeals.

Dissuasive effect

To reduce the number of pigeons that go to feed in the port area, the best method is the presence of the peregrine falcon (Falconus peregrinus). In the years 2001/2002, the Port participated in the reintroduction of this bird in the city, raising 3 young ones in an artificial nest in a grain silo. In 2020, 3 pairs of the 9 falcons in Barcelona bred in the port, consolidating this population.

Invasive species and fauna control

In the port, studies and monitoring of animal and plant species are carried out to detect alien species that can become invasive. Of all those detected and identified there is no evidence of the presence of introduced species, except for a mention in the scientific literature in the 1990s of Alexandrium catanella in phytoplankton.

Controls of the sedimentary bottoms of the port waters have not detected invasive species among the benthic communities either, apart from some sporadic and isolated instances.

Methods of introduction and effects

There are numerous ways of introducing species into a port:

• In the detachment of encrustations from the hull of boats (from fouling).
• From the packaging of the merchandise, for example, in a container.
• Inside the merchandise itself.

However, the discharge of ballast water from ships is subject to greater protocols.

Why?

Because it is a route for the introduction of potentially invasive foreign organisms. Ships use them to maintain stability and balance during loading and unloading of merchandise and expel them if necessary. In ballast tanks, the water and sediments can contain organisms, bacteria and viruses that can remain alive for weeks and months and can be washed into port waters.

Allochthonous species can cause the displacement of local communities and profound changes in the new ecosystem, with serious losses of biodiversity and other damages.

Specific regulations

In 2004, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) approved the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, which requires all ships to implement a Ballast Water and Sediment Management Plan and have their own filtration or sterilisation for the discharge of ballast water in other ports far from the water intake point. The Spanish government ratified the agreement in 2016.