Town
Murcia · Mar Menor
San Pedro del Pinatar
The northern tip of the Mar Menor, where a working saltworks, protected dunes and the traditional encañizadas fisheries share one stretch of low coast.
Salt at the edge of the lagoon
A protected saltscape that is still an industry
San Pedro del Pinatar separated from Murcia in 1836 and sits where the Mar Menor, the open Mediterranean and a commercial saltworks meet. The 856-hectare regional park around the salt pans is a managed working landscape, not an untouched reserve.
The same shallow water carries the salt harvest, feeds tens of thousands of migrating birds and holds the lagoon muds people come to bathe in. All of it now depends on the recovery of a Mar Menor damaged by farm runoff.
Fast facts
INE padrón, 1 Jan 2025
- Population
- 29,674
- Change since 2015
- +22%
24,339 in 2015
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One new contribution
New contribution · Summer 2026
San Pedro del Pinatar: salt, dunes and the lagoon edge
How the protected salt pans, the Molino de Quintín, the dunes, the mud baths and the encañizadas fisheries fit together at the northern end of the Mar Menor.
Published 1 September 2026
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