A stack of trouble: Human made Ibizan rock piles are causing damage to coastal fauna.

If you’ve ever travelled to the Balearic Islands, then surely you have seen them just before setting foot into the crystalline waters. Somewhere between the clear sand and the rocks with scurrying Ibiza wall lizards, and just a few metres ahead of the instagrammer draped all in white, little mounds of rocks are appearing, perfectly and sometimes inexplicably balanced.

These haven’t appeared due to mother-nature, but rather because of hippie fashion trends with hybrid links between Buddhist and Taoist traditions that represent internal balance; Native American sacred rituals and Gaelic cairns from the Celts. When the rocks are not being used for these cultural or aesthetic reasons, they also serve as indicators for travellers, often showing where routes or property limits start and end.

As great as they may look with a vintage filter and a pretty sunset as a backdrop, this new trend is causing serious ecological damage to the Balearic coast. When these stones and rocks are removed, dozens of autochthonous species are left without a habitat to nest, live and feed.

With an increasing number of people building mounds, in some areas clusters of balanced rocks covering a dense area, prevent plants from growing. The few plants that can naturally grow in an environment that has such high salinity, and is exposed to winds and strong sunlight, slowly introduce their roots between rocks in search for the right humidity. By removing these rocks, the vegetation disappears almost immediately.

This has drastic consequences on the local fauna. As the plants dry, insects such as ants, beetles and small spiders disappear too. These insects tend to be the main meal for endemic and common reptiles and birds in the area, such as the Moorish gecko, the Mediterranean house gecko, the before mentioned Ibiza wall lizard, the tawny pipit, the Kentish plover and the greater short-toed lark. For these animals, they not only need the plants in order to find food, they also use the vegetation as refuge due to the lack of trees on the coast.

Even when tourists use the stones as decorative features surrounding the plants, the fact that these plants spread their roots around the unbalanced stones, means that when the rocks are removed the plants die shortly after.

In their obsessive quest to find large stones, tourists have gone as far as to destroy nests, or breaks walls from buildings over three centuries old, and the appearance of numerous mounds have also ended up confusing hikers looking for route indicators.

In the Balearics as well as in the Canary Islands precautions are being taken by the local administration to warn tourists from building these piles, but there is yet to be a law that sanctions these actions. However, in Menorca and Formentera signs already appear warning advising tourists to stop from carrying out this harmful activity. However, the next time you see a mound of rocks, precaution must be made so as to not affect the few nests that may remain in the area.

The Balearic Islands probably hold Spain’s most beautiful beaches, but as with most recent tourism, special care must be taken to prevent preserve the natural beauty and wildlife the islands can offer.