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Valencian coast hit with six Black Flags despite record Blue Flag haul in 2026
Alicante, Valencia and Castellón all feature in Ecologistas en Acción's dreaded annual report
The Valencian Community has received a very disappointing six Black Flags in this year's annual report from Ecologistas en Acción, covering pollution and mismanagement across all three of its provinces.
The awards make for uncomfortable reading alongside an otherwise impressive year for the community, which has held onto its position at the top of Spain's Blue Flag rankings with 152 awards across 48 municipalities in 2026, nine more than last year and more than any other autonomous community in the country, ahead of Andalucía with 143, Galicia with 118 and Catalonia with 101.
As it has done every year since 2005, the environmental group Ecologistas en Acción handed out two Black Flags per province, targeting what it considers the most significant cases of coastal pollution and poor management.
In Alicante, Almadrava Beach was flagged for both pollution and mismanagement, alongside Albufereta i Cap de l'Horta.
In Valencia, the Port Authority of Valencia came in for sharp criticism over serious damage to beaches surrounding the Port of Valencia and Sagunto caused by port expansion works, as well as contamination from sewage and deficiencies in coastal sanitation.
In Castellón, Surrach Beach was flagged for pollution and La Ribera de Cabanes Beach for mismanagement.
The report takes a dim view of the direction of travel on the Valencian coast, arguing that while there had been a slowdown in coastal damage under the previous regional government, this never translated into genuine environmental recovery.
According to Ecologistas en Acción, that trend has now gone sharply into reverse under the current PP and Vox administration led by Mazón, which repealed the Pativel coastal protection plan and significantly reduced coastal protections through the Simplification Law 6/2024 and Decree 54/2025. The group says those changes affected more than 500 articles across several environmental protection laws.
Among the consequences, the organisation points to the unblocking of at least seven beachfront urban development projects, several of which had previously been awarded Black Flags in their own right.
It also highlights a growing number of beaches closed each summer due to untreated sewage, over-development creeping into protected areas and natural parks, and what it describes as a commitment to mass, uncontrolled tourism that threatens fragile Mediterranean marine ecosystems.
More broadly, Ecologistas en Acción warned that much of the Spanish coastline remains caught in a cycle of degradation driven by economic interests, with beach erosion, the destruction of wetlands and dune systems, marine pollution, loss of biodiversity and increased vulnerability to storms among the most visible results.
Image: Comunitat Valenciana
