Barcelona Launches Open-Sea Swimming Lanes

The four itineraries are clearly marked and partitioned making them safer to navigate, and come with full information about the length, width and difficulty of the circuit, as well as information about the local flora and fauna.

The itineraries allow swimmers to explore two areas of the Barcelona beach line: around the Barceloneta beach and around the Marbella beach. The project was launched in collaboration with two local sports centres, the Espai de Mar in Barceloneta and the CEM in La Mar Bella, which act as starting points for each of the routes.

In addition to the routes themselves, the Vies Braves project will be organizing a number of free activities throughout the summer promoting swimming, snorkeling and other aquatic activities both for fun and as part of a healthy lifestyle.

With many continuing to fill the pinch of the financial crisis which hit the country hard a few years ago, projects like these offer welcome alternatives to costly gym memberships and water parks. They also help raise awareness about the urgent need to protect the biodiversity of the oceans and combat pollution, over-fishing and other harmful practices that threaten our very ability to enjoy the seasides.