Passionate, optimistic and enquiring, Patrici Bultó moves around the facilities of L‘Aquàrium like a fish in water.
He is convinced that the sea is a great mystery (we know just 200,000 of the 20 million species that are estimated to live in it) and it is at the same time a source of hope because marine life might help us to find remedies for many current illnesses. Therefore, he believes that Barcelona, as a leading city in the Mediterranean, must opt for a “quality sea” with the greatest possible biological wealth and for green tourism that can enjoy waters in “magnificent” condition.
He explains that one of the “great challenges” facing the entire world is to combine the growth in human activity with the greatest care for marine biodiversity as two thirds of the planet are covered by water. “The sea is not a huge store that will never run out”, he notes. Despite this, he adds a positive message straight away: the quality of our coasts has improved greatly in recent year and the city’s beaches are also first rate. Economic changes with more service activity and less industry have also helped in this regard because they have reduced the most serious pollution.
Bultó has just turned 59 but in his eyes you can see the expression of the little boy who used to play with all sorts of animals in Cunit (Tarragona) and who would watch all of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente’s nature programmes open-mouthed. Because of this, he is very proud of the great interest that coming to L’Aquàrium inspires in children as they discover a whole universe to explore. “Nowadays children live in a world with a lot of virtual reality; here they see the real world, with flesh and cartilage”. This knowledge of the marine world makes them love it and, as a result, they want to care for it and conserve it.
On his mobile phone he has a photo of Malia Obama, the daughter of the president of the United States, who visited L’Aquàrium this summer with some friends, as many tourists do, attracted by the largest facilities in the world specialising in Mediterranean matters. Aquariums all over the world are linked by a large network to help each other to solve problems, and Barcelona’s aquarium has made many contributions.
The Mediterranean, he explains, is a very enclosed sea that does not have as much biodiversity as others (there are some 900 native species), but that has some fish that are capable of adapting to a large temperature variation (from 15 to 25 degrees Celsius). Indeed, in the spring there is an explosion of life with the entrance of a current of plankton followed by shoals of sardines, tuna and, also, basking sharks. The size of these sharks is nothing like that of the impressive sand tiger sharks that can be seen at L’Aquàrium, many of which come from the far-off Durban in South Africa.
barcelonaturisme.com
