Mar Menor

Mar Menor (Spanish pronunciation: [ˌmaɾ meˈnoɾ], "minor/smaller sea") is a coastal saltwater lagoon in the Iberian Peninsula located south-east of the Autonomous Community of Murcia, Spain, near Cartagena.

With a surface area of 135 km2, a coastal length of 70 km, and warm and clear water no more than 7 metres in depth, it is the largest lagoon in Spain.

[5] In October 2019 the pollution entering after floods in September led to thousands of dead fish lining the beaches, having suffocated due to a lack of oxygen.

Intensive farming in surrounding areas leads to high levels of nitrates, ammonium and phosphates from fertilizers being washed into the lagoon, causing eutrophication, an excessive growth of algae and bacteria that deprives the water of oxygen.

[7] Beginning in 2018 in response to the recurring hypoxic events, activists from civil society have lobbied under the name of "ILP (Iniciativa Legisativa Popular) Mar Menor"[8] for a law that would recognize the right of the Mar Menor ecosystem to exist, treating it as a "legal person"[9] following the legal paradigm of rights of nature.