Duck in decline
ONLY 10 pairs of the endangered white- headed duck ( Oxyura leucocephala) nested at El Hondo natural park during 2020, ecologists have warned.
The association friends of the south Alicante wetlands ( AHSA) highlighted the worrying decline, as evidenced by the results of regional government’s annual census of nesting water birds, which members of the group participate in. They said this has been another year of terrible results for El Hondo, which is the principal European habitat for the species, after there was only a slight upturn in 2019, when 38 pairs nested.
The ecologists blamed the deterioration of the aquatic ecosystems in this natural space, caused by overpopulation of carp.
AHSA has denounced this situation repeatedly over recent years, demanding a plan to control this invasive species of fish with regular drying out of the park’s different wetlands, which include reservoirs owned by the Riegos de Levante farmers’ association.
They asked why the publicly owned wetlands are occasionally drained to control the carp population, such as was done recently to the ponds in the Finca del Rincón, where the information centre is, but not the Levante and Poniente reservoirs, ‘ the true heart of the park’. The regional government has an agreement with Riegos de Levante to manage the water in these reservoirs, which establishes the situations in which the reservoirs should be drained and these include controlling the carp population.
AHSA members insisted the farmers should have no problem with taking this action and the regional department for ecological transition should be ‘ more diligent’ in its management of the park.