The Board of Directors of the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) has given the green light to the signing of the agreement for the management of spaces and facilities at the Cap Salines lighthouse in Mallorca, concluded between the Department of European Funds, University and Culture of the Government of the Balearic Islands and the APB. In the past, the lighthouse premises had already housed a Coastal Research Station of the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (IMEDEA), and with the signing of this agreement it becomes part of the Network of Research Stations of the Balearic Islands (XEIIB), managed directly by the Directorate General for University Policy and Research.

The aim of the Government is to consolidate a series of research centres across the archipelago to contribute to the decentralisation of research. Furthermore, the APB intends to give value to a heritage that was no longer necessary for the maintenance of the maritime signal and that with this agreement is once again useful for environmental research, fulfilling the commitments acquired in the environmental policy of this public body.

As part of this agreement, open days will be held to show different groups the research activity carried out in the former lighthouse keeper's quarters, when information on the history of the lighthouse itself will be presented and distributed.

As a research station, the key benefit of maintaining a continuous sampling and research activity along the coastline is obtaining a better knowledge of the ecosystems, the changes they undergo, the detection of their causes and possible solutions. This knowledge will make it possible to establish a baseline for detecting possible changes and to draw up models of development scenarios and future uses, in order to set up management policies that guarantee the environmental quality of the islands.

Specifically, the station will carry out an inventory and integrated study of biodiversity, both marine and terrestrial, control of seabird populations, phenology of flowering and fruiting of plant species used as indicators of the effects of an increase in environmental temperature, a visual census of coastal fish and control of posidonia meadows, among others.

Coastal Research Station

In May 2003, the CSIC signed an agreement with the APB for the management of the Cap Salines lighthouse as a Coastal Research Station of the IMEDEA.

The conversion of the lighthouse into a coastal research station was a milestone in coastal ecosystem research in Spain, where there were no facilities capable of direct research on coastal ecosystems, whereas there are several of these facilities on terrestrial ecosystems.

The Research Station is located in an unspoilt area of the coastline of Mallorca, protected as the Migjorn de Mallorca Marine Reserve.