I have been thinking for some time about opening a new section in this blog, something that has to do with a personal project that I have on the table and that I am observing with enthusiasm and attention.
Having grown up on a Mediterranean island, the sea is always present. It is orientation, it is the horizon and it is a constant in my life. I started sailing at the age of 5, when the Calanova was a sailing school, in a galleon. Later, optimist, 420 and 470, light sailing boats that I steered alone or with someone at the jib. When I was 12, my father bought a second-hand windsurf, with which I sailed along the coast of Calvià and the bay of Alcudia.
I don’t remember having learned to dive with a mask and fins, but I have a memory of going around the islet of Alcanada with my grandfather when I was 7 or 8 years old.
I think I was three years old when my father bought the llaüt, a typical Mediterranean sailing boat, which I sailed with my father until it became too heavy to take it out of the water every year to clean it, replace the rotten wood and repaint it. It was a heavy and reliable boat, with a jib, a lateen and a midships at the stern, a classic, in which the best memories shared with my father were generated.
I know that fear is one of the predominant variables in these times: at a time when the extreme right is emerging with force, when strength, arrogance and narrow-mindedness are legitimised as ways of surviving in an increasingly complex environment, I feel it is necessary to make a positive story based on the values of diversity, calm, openness, trust, intelligence, generosity, truth and beauty in the face of the great challenges that lie ahead.
One of the challenges that lie ahead is the exploitation of marine resources. This Sea that I grew up with seems to be the source of the next predatory process of humans, once the resources of the earth are exploited.
The concept of Blue Economy appeared for the first time in 2009, in the congress of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, referring to the economy based on the transformation of any type of marine resource.
I open this section in my blog in an attempt to make a story of compatibility between economic (de)growth and the protection of marine resources. We need a lot of innovation to transform marine resources without compromising the environmental heritage of our daughters and granddaughters, and I am determined to contribute to safeguarding these resources and these values to the extent that I can.