Something's A Bit Fishy: La Gola

They were trawling dead fish out of La Gola again. Hundreds of young sea bass suffocated in the water of the canal, creating a fine old take-away for the seagulls which came from miles around to feast.

This is the small La Gola lagoon in Puerto Pollensa. Together with its accompanying park, it is referred to, by politicians who rush to make such environmentally righteous statements, as the green heartbeat of the resort. Or something like this. It's tosh, whatever it is. I have previously used La Gola to denote an item of expenditure, one of questionable sense. "It'll cost you a lagola, mate." 800 grand, give or take the odd thousand; what it cost to do whatever it was they did. They being the collective of the town hall and regional government. (There is another cost quoted in respect of La Gola; one substantially greater - four million.)

To be fair, some parts of the park look reasonable enough. The problem has been, ever since it was officially opened and before this, keeping it in order. Out of order, it has been a haven for graffiti-ists, botellón-ists and all manner of other ists. Amidst the periodic disorder, they built a visitors' centre. It's not completely useless, as it does give information about bird and wildlife in other parts of the island, e.g. the Tramuntana mountains. But whether twitchers or others flock pilgrim-like in great numbers to it in order to avail themselves of its wisdom, I really couldn't say.

It is the case, though, that La Gola and the wetlands of Albufereta and the now newly-reopened Can Cullerassa finca, a few kilometres along the coast, are important in attracting the keen birdwatcher. La Gola has recently been visited by an obscure heron, one that caused great excitement among the feathered-friend-fancying fraternity.

The appearance of the heron might be considered evidence of the green heartbeat actually beating. On the other hand, it might not be, and the sea bass would probably be inclined to agree that it wasn't. The fish were fried, it would appear, because no one has got round to properly dredging the canal. Clogged up, sea water can't get in adequately.

La Gola is something of a metaphor for what occurs elsewhere in Mallorca, one that relates to a division of responsibilities that the relevant bodies seem either unaware of or unable or unwilling to do anything about.

Pollensa town hall, the usual suspect when anything goes wrong in Puerto Pollensa, will doubtless get it in the neck over the sea bass and for the general upkeep of the pond, but, for once, it isn't the town hall's fault. The water, indeed the whole park, come under the auspices of the regional government's environment ministry. The town hall is meant to keep the park up to scratch, which is a sore point among the locals, but as for the water: not its job.

Ultimately, it's probably the responsibility of the national Costas authority, a division of the central environment ministry, but which devolves responsibility back to its Balearics wing. This, as with other regional Costas wings, devotes its energies primarily to knocking things down, such as buildings on beaches, rather than keeping things shipshape.

The division of responsibilities in the La Gola case should be clear enough, but the environment ministry is being charged, by locals in the port, with not giving sufficient priority to its maintenance or to removing sand that is dragged in from the sea. It could well be that, governmental coffers having been silted up, it has to give priorities elsewhere.

A lesson of La Gola is that they went in, like some invading force in Iraq, all environmental guns blazing but failed to consider the longer-term consequences, such as maintaining it once all the money had been spent or seeing the need for the sappers to be set to work re-trenching the canal. It may just have been bad luck. Money running out and all that.

Meanwhile, the division of responsibilities means that the town hall will be mistakenly considered the guilty party by many, while the real culprits are hiding away in a bunker in Palma.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.