Kategorie: News
Campaign launched to prevent destruction of Playa Blanca's underwater museum
Jason deCaires Taylor's Museo Atlántico was founded with the aim of creating an artificial reef and promoting the development and growth of biodiversity and marine life on the coasts of Lanzarote.
Now, years after the inauguration of the museum (see also news article regarding the museum from 2015), which has been transformed into a marine ecosystem, the Lanzarote Town Council is trying to remove the statues from the water, without any prior notice from the authorities or any reason other than party political rivalry.
The Museo Atlántico is not only an important tourist attraction in the Canary Islands, creating jobs and sustainable quality tourism. It is also a haven for hundreds of species, many of which are protected and whose habitat could be severely affected if the initiative is implemented.
The topic is a bit opaque for outsiders and we therefore tried to get information from the ground. Michi from the Daivoon Diving School has now written her impressions as a commentary on the topic and we don't want to withhold her opinion and impression on the topic from you:
A commentary by Michaela Jedinger
"The action to remove the museum in whole or in part is probably more about politics than anything else. One party made the museum, the current one - another - wants to remove it. Allegedly because it is not by Cesar Manrique (editor's note: the island's best-known fine artist) and would damage the latter's reputation. Already in 2020, they removed the Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the tidal area in front of the Castillo San Jose (figures on horses - also visible to non-divers) with this reasoning. Allegedly they disturbed the view - countless people were ignored who visited the Castillo just for that reason. It had to be removed - at incredibly high cost, of course.
Now the current ruling party had some statues removed from the museum on Saturday and then virtually overnight. Officially they said it was for maintenance (for a museum that doesn't need maintenance - the decay is a deliberate part of the project...), and that statues should be removed. Then as a further argument, it is uneconomical: also questionable, since already in 2020 the state administration of the museum has ceased and the diving schools simply drive to it, just like all the other diving sites. Except that this one is particularly well known and attracts many divers. It is hard to imagine that a dive site that attracts tourists should be a loss-making business for the state (after all, it brings tourists and thus turnover for dive schools and consequently tax revenue).
They don't want it. And they plan to pay a lot of money for its removal so that it will be completely or partially removed. The boats of the diving schools had to leave because the Guardia Civil said they had the order and could not do anything about it. The politicians themselves say they "didn't know about it, they were informed about maintenance work. There was never any talk of demolition". You can believe that, but you don't have to as loud as the rumour mill is bubbling and everyone knows that various political representatives simply wanted it 'gone'.
The fact that they are doing the opposite of environmental protection should also be mentioned in passing. The museum has been in existence since 2016 and, accordingly, quite a bit of marine life has already accumulated.
It is hard to imagine that Manrique would have anything against the museum. He changed a lot of things on Lanzarote, artistically represented them and probably didn't want art to stand still after his death; of course, that's an assumption of mine of course... .
Another section of rumours claims that it is not about the whole museum at all, but only special figures. There is supposed to have been a special lawyer immortalised, corrupt politicians etc. ... there are many rumours. The fact is that detailed faces are not necessarily still visible, as many are already overgrown (and not labelled with names anyway). And the plan is for the statues to crumble sooner or later anyway. So whoever should have the issue with the wrong people in the sea who might then see a few divers...they should possibly revise the priority list for the use of taxpayers' money again carefully....
In the end, it remains to say: what they are doing lacks any logic. The figures are already there, they don't bother anyone, they bring tourism and last, not least: a dead artist probably won't care about them. They have stimulated tourism and, according to the status quo, there are no costs for the state (and the fact that it was initially in deficit is probably due to unwise management, not the museum itself). Only the removal in the night from Saturday to Sunday caused costs as well as further measures against the museum. We ask you - help to vote against the destruction and sign the petition. Thank you, Michaela Jedinger."
You can find the original petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/evitar-la-destrucción-del-museo-atlántico-de-lanzarote-un-arrecife-artificial
Museo Atlantico on Taucher.Net