Talk:Gibraltar Artificial Reef

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The Gibraltar Government has linked this reef to the border issues with Spain, according to the BBC. Might be of relevance should anyone feel like updating this thread. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23574507 150.101.218.166 (talk) 14:16, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

Spanish perspective
According to Madrid gossip, in the sixties Gibraltar was simply using the sea as a free dumping ground for automotive scrap. That a marine biologist found it interesting was an excuse to commercially dispose of old vehicles by launching them down a ramp, and more recently to dishonestly dispose of entire ships for big money at no cost by simply scuttling them. The concrete blocks of the current (2013) dispute allegedly have deliberately been fitted with rebar hooks simply to rip Spanish fishing nets beyond repair.

The lucrative ship-to-ship fuel transfer bunkering activities are also a source of pollution worry in Spain, who insists the treaty of Utrecht only ceded the land, not the surrounding sea, which aquatic area Gibraltar is intent on expanding both east and west by 'reclaiming' land (ironically with imported Spanish rock and sand) in order to build a large yacht marina,luxury hotel complex or whatever, thus invading  'in Spanish waters'.

But the big issue is intensive money laundering - Gibraltar, with a population of a small town is home to very many companies and gaming services, many of which appear to accept a large volume of high denomination Euro notes.

Spain has a huge political corruption problem because old regime Francoists, like their Nazi homologues in Germany, kept most of the plumb jobs. Now, 35 years later, the new generation of Jurists is finally rooting some of the worst abuses - which is why Garzon was stripped of his judicial role and now works in Argentina, which country, in September 2013 issues international arrest warrants for four officials Franco alleged to be torturers - Spain has is delaying execution thereof (the ruling Party Popular adopted many 'reformist' philangists (Franco era  politicians)

Considering the ruling PP stands virtually accused in court of illegally soliciting bribes to finance its electoral campaigns over the last two decades, the 2013 spat may well be a 'patriotic' smoke-screen - but there are also real genuine worries about the honesty and integrity of the Gibraltar Britons. Timpo (talk) 16:45, 25 September 2013 (UTC)