Walter Finch
GIBRALTAR’S Port Authority has established a maritime exclusion zone around its controversial Eastside land reclamation project.
The authority has deployed four special yellow-flash marker buoys surrounding two silt curtains, effectively blocking all maritime traffic from the development site.
The GPA has warned that these barriers pose a significant navigational hazard.
A strict warning has been issued to owners and agents of pleasure craft and charter boats, as well as paddle boarders and kayakers, to steer clear of the marked area.
Philip Mandleberg, VTS Manager at the GPA, said: “The exclusion zone is strictly off-limits to anyone not directly involved in the works.”
The zone is expected to remain in place throughout critical phases of the reclamation project.
The Eastside project, which has been a source of significant tension with Spain, aims to create approximately 27.5 hectares of new land by extending Gibraltar’s eastern shoreline.
The project, estimated to cost around €340 million, has drawn criticism from environmental groups concerned about potential marine ecosystem disruption and from Spanish authorities who claim the development is ‘an invasion of our sovereign waters’.
It is part of Gibraltar’s strategic infrastructure expansion, designed to provide additional land for economic development, potential housing, and enhanced port facilities – including luxury apartments and a marina.
The construction involves extensive dredging and land reclamation, activities known to disrupt marine habitats and water quality.
Critics have pointed to the possible displacement of local marine species and questioned whether sufficient measures are in place to mitigate these impacts.
The Gibraltar government told the Olive Press last month that ‘all reclamation projects done by Gibraltar in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters comply with all international and EU rules.’
“In fact, the reclamation on the Eastside was approved by the EU Commission at the time we were members of the EU.”
Gibraltar even dared the Spanish authorities to take them to court and attempt to litigate sovereignty of the waters around the Rock.
A spokesperson told the Olive Press: “The BEST thing that could EVER happen to Gibraltar would be that any official entity of Spain should start a litigation on our waters, in any court, even their own.”
The government branded Spanish complaints about the new marina development and their claims to the territorial waters around the Rock as ‘legal and political nonsense.’
