CULTURE & TRADITION T HE PARK RECOMMENDS INTRODUCTION The exploitation of this protected area as a salt producing area is very old, At Las Salinas Visitor Centre you can nd The Salinas y Arenales in San Pedro del Pinatar Regional Park is probably prior to the Roman occupation. In the Middle Ages there were information to discover and enjoy this a wetland located between the Mar Menor and the three small salt ats that were in the hands of the Crown for 750 years. The Protected Area. We recommend you a visit Mediterranean Sea, which has 856 hectares of land, distributed monarchs used to establish the price of salt and rent the territory to the to the Exhibition and Projection Rooms nobility or religious orders. where you can get a rst contact with the between the towns of San Javier and San Pedro del Pinatar. natural and cultural values of the Park. In addition, you have a binoculars loan This environment has been shaped by humans because of the service to be able to see birds up close conditions for salt production: scarce rainfall, high insolation from the dierent bird hides located in the Regional Park. Likewise, there is a network and prevailing east winds. These characteristics, along with of signposted itineraries, both walking and centuries of salt extraction, have given rise to dierent cycling, that cross the Salinas in San Pedro. environments, with a ora and fauna adapted to these unique Salinas de San Pedro in 1931 Visitor's Center “Las Salinas” circumstances.

At the end of the Nineteenth Century the salt ats were privatized, and were On your visit we recommend you to: gained by Mr. Manuel García de Coterillo, who carried out a major Despite its little surface, its natural and cultural values make it protected both nationally and internationally. In 1992 it was remodeling joining the three existing salt ats. Shortly after the Mota de los Leave your vehicle in the Remember that it is forbidden declared Regional Park and at the same time, became part of Molinos was built, place where we can nd the Quintín and La Calcetera authorized parking spaces. to make re camp and Windmills, which raised the water from the Mar Menor to take it to the salt overnight parking. the Natura 2000 network. Later was designated a Wetland of ats. In 1917 a reaorestation was carried creating the Coterillo Pine Forest, Always walk on authorized International Importance according to the Ramsar Convention to prevent the salt ponds to ll to the brim with the sand of the dunes. paths. Creating shortcuts Take responsibility for the (1994) and in 1998 it was declared a Special Protection Area for waste you generate, take it The processes occurring in the salt ats have hardly changed over the deteriorates the soil. Always walk birds (SPA). Together with the Mar Menor and other coastal centuries. It consists of the evaporation by the sun and the wind of the water on the walkways and, never on home or use the containers. areas in 2001 it became a part of Specially Protected Areas of coming from the Mar Menor, which passes through three types of ponds: the dunes. Please remember that butts Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI). In 2019 the Master Plan for storage, heaters and crystallizers. These ponds are reducing their size and and any food waste are also the Use and Management of the Regional Park was approved, depth, progressively increasing its salinity, until the salt precipitates Keep pets on a lead and please considered rubbish. becoming a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). This plan is accumulating in the bottom of the crystallizing ponds, very unique for their clean up if necessary. Municipal essential for the management and conservation of this pink color. The harvest takes place between September and October, laws do not allow the presence In the Mud Baths please collecting around 90,000 tons of excellent quality sea salt. environment. of pets on beaches. Find out remove the mud in the same beforehand about the existence pond in which you applied it, of dog beaches. not in the Mar Menor.

Respect the native fauna and In summer avoid the central ora. hours of the day, protect yourself from the sun and carry Las Encañizadas Avoid making noise as it could plenty of water in your bag. bother the wildlife and other In one of the communications that connect the Mar Menor with the In case of emergency, call 112. Mediterranean Sea, locally called “golas”, a shing gear known as Las visitors. Encañizadas takes place. This form of shing, of medieval origin, consists of a For more information: @SalinasSPedroPR network of reeds rmly xed in the mud like a maze, where sh are led into a Región de Murcia trap, awaiting capture. www.murcianatural.carm.es Always facing to sea, the inhabitants Centro de Visitantes “Las Salinas” Tel. 968 178 139 from this environment have lived from @SalinasSPedroPR [email protected]

the exploitation of salt and shing. This paper. on recycled Printed after use. this material recycle Please 2020 Edition. is also evidenced by traditions like the Virgen del Carmen pilgrimage and the gastronomy, with dishes like Caldero (a plate of rice) or salted shes. They are also famous the mud baths, with bene cial properties for health. Life in the Salt Mud Baths European Regional Development Fund. A way of making Europe LANDSCAPE FAUNA FLORA the salt factory workers. They The horizontality of the Before reaching the The animals that inhabit the salt Throughout black winged stilts In addition to the demanding are in charge of opening the landscape barely breaks Mediterranean Sea, dunes and ponds are very dierent from (Himantopus himantopus) and climatological conditions of this wooden gates located in the Coterillo Pine Forest, whose beaches show us a landscape in those of the Mar Menor and avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) can Region (strong insolation and “motas”, a term which refers to trees appear lying on the sands continuous evolution. This Mediterranean Sea, despite its also be seen. However, it is only in scarce rains, usually torrential), the long sand and stone dams due to incessant wind, loaded landscape was formed in the past closeness. The extreme salinity autumn and winter when we can the Salinas de San Pedro add new built by humans to delimit the with salts coming from the sea. by the sand that travelled from the of water is only resisted by the see godwits (Limosa sp.), challenges for the survival of dierent ponds. mouth of the Segura River with tiniest beings, like the brine sandpipers and dunlins (Calidris plants. Next to the salty water the help of the Ocean currents. shrimp (Artemia salina). sp.) joining the group. ponds and between the dunes, Without a doubt the most Crystallizing Ponds an impermeable and loaded striking thing is the pink color of down with salt soil, sometimes The way we see today the Two more landscapes complete the ponds where the salt waterlogged, is inhabited only by Coastal Phoenician Juniper Regional Park is the result of the the mosaic of colors and curious crystallizes, caused by salt-loving plants (hallophytic), like (Juniperus turbinata) close relationship that humans shapes: Las Encañizadas, the microorganisms that survive in the sea lettuce (Limonium sp.), have had for centuries with natural and shallow connection On the beachfront, the dunes these extreme environments. rushes (Juncus sp.) and glassworts nature in search of the precious between the Mar Menor and the are in continuous movement (Sarcocornia fruticosa and treasure of salt. Between the salt ats and the Mediterranean Sea, and the water and lacking in nutrients. They Arthrocnemum macrostachyum). sea, we nd the salt marshes, channel that surrounds the Park, provide space to the exible The saline waters, great in whose soils the water which is in charge of collecting marram grass (Ammophila protagonists of the landscape, appears and disappears and runo waters and bring them to Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina) arenaria). To protect themselves travel from pond to pond the vegetation acquires the sea. from splashes and the sea wind, helped by the experience of reddish tonalities. Pine Forest The only sh that lives in the some species like the cretan Salinas is the Spanish toothcarp trefoil (Lotus creticus) grow lying (Aphanius iberus), unique to the Baby Avocet down upholstering the Mediterranean Sea Iberian Peninsula and in danger (Recurvirostra avosetta) landscape of a showy yellow of extinction. The greater color. Other species such as the amingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) Other featured water birds are the shelduck (Tadorna tadorna), a duck of sea holly (Eryngium maritimum) is another great example of coat its "skin" with a waterproof La Llana Beaches adaptation of life in salt ats. colorful plumage, several seagull Punta de Algas Beach species, diver bids such as black wax that protects it. Already on Barraca Quemada Since, among others things, they the shore of the beach, the Beach use their beak to lter shrimps in necked grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) or terns like the little tern (Sternula accumulations of leaves and Las Salinas order to feed themselves. The salt balls of marine plants remains Beach albifrons) that, arrived from Africa Torre Derribada ponds shores and the beaches announce the presence of Beach each spring, nd in the Regional Glasswort are a buet for waders, whose neptune grass (Posidonia El Mojón El Coterillo Park an ideal place to expand its (Sarcocornia fruticosa) Beach Salt Pond Salt production beaks and legs are adapted to oceanica). Their underwater facilities extract small insects and family. El Coterillo In the outer dunes from the sea, meadows provide shelter and Pine Grove mollusks from the mud. Other animals such as lizards, a small pine forest (Pinus food for thousands of species Storage Crystallising ponds halepensis) get our attention, ponds snakes and the chameleon and at the same time they clean (Chamaeleo chamaeleon) watch due to its knocked down logs by and oxygenate the waters. Storage ponds over us from their hiding places. the wind. In these sand dunes Heating ponds Mud two botanical gems are also baths El Mojón preserved: the coastal phoenician juniper (Juniperus Mar Menor turbinata), in danger of "Las Salinas" extinction in the Region of Visitor Centre - Murcia Murcia, and the Mar Menor tagena San Pedro Car del Pinatar rockrose (Helianthemum marminorense), unique to this Lo Pagán Greater Flamingo environment. (Phoenicopterus roseus) Chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon) Cretan Trefoil (Lotus creticus)