Better-known legislation for crews
The 2023 summer season, between May 1 and September 30, marked a new stage in the deployment of public policy to preserve the seabed in the French Mediterranean. Begun in 2019, this policy has continued to gain momentum with the publication of the latest decree monitoring anchorages for vessels over 20-24 meters west of Corsica in June 2023.
The CACEM, or support center for marine environment control, is now fully operational, and has benefited from the support of various government resources at sea, in particular semaphores for monitoring anchorages and anchoring restrictions and bans. Two figures sum up the situation: 933 suspicions of anchoring infringements, compared with 650 in 2022, recorded by the semaphores, and 115 official reports, compared with 119 in 2022, currently being investigated by the Marseille Maritime Court. For the Préfecture Maritime de Méditerranée, these figures reflect both the effectiveness of surveillance, with an increase in the number of suspicions, and better compliance with the rules, as evidenced by the slight drop in the number of official reports.
A dynamic for Posidonia
In addition to crackdowns, the prefecture emphasizes the mobilization of public and private energies through the Alliance Posidonie launched in June 2023.
It lists the work still to be done, including the development of alternatives to anchoring with coffers and ZMELs. This will require a legal guarantee that they will hold in the event of bad weather, which has been a problem for some insurers and crews.
Lastly, the prefecture is stepping up its work on vessels of less than 20 metres, including "the impact on Posidonia meadows is considered to be minor, but still significant enough to warrant a study of the need for new regulations" This announcement comes at a time when areas such as Porquerolles are already heavily regulated in terms of anchoring, and are thus acting as a laboratory.
