The first museum dedicated to the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia will celebrate fishing

The first museum dedicated exclusively to Murcia’s Mar Menor lagoon will exhibit the area’s fishing industry in a disused air force building in Los Alcázares.

One of the buildings from the old hydroplane base in the town, which at the beginning of the 20th century served as a dining room, will be converted.

Los Alcázares council will pay for the improvements, including de-moisture and repainting of the building, as well as the installation of a new fence and security cameras, as the rest of the area is still owned by the military.

The building is over 100 years old and Los Alcázares mayor Mario Pérez Cervera hopes that other structures on the site will be ceded by the air force for “educational, cultural and environmental functions”.

“The old dining room will be the first interpretation center of the Mar Menor that will allow tourists to get to know the area better,” said Pérez Cervera.

The new collection of the Museum will include the collection of Francisco Javier Olmos, who spent his life researching and compiling the history of the fishing traditions of the Mar Menor.

Old fishing tackle and tools used for decades in the lagoon will also be on display.

Francisco Javier Olmos said: “This center of the Mar Menor will be the beginning of the creation of a workshop of pieces that visitors can see and ask questions.”

“There will be riverside carpentry tools, from mallets to irons, as well as pots and lines, in addition to other equipment used by fishermen that will be restored to their former splendor,” he added.