5.6.2025
A good idea is spreading: Inspired by the plant islands in Marina Düsseldorf, Marina Zollhafen in Mainz has now built a floating biotope. As in many urban marinas, there are no shallow shore areas in the customs port that are so valuable for the settlement of plants and animals. Planted islands can make up for this disadvantage: “With the biotope, we want to make a contribution to biodiversity and species protection and at the same time promote biological water purification in a natural way,” explains managing director Hanns-Detlev Höhne.
The biotope in Mainzer Marina is a field experiment supported by the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Koblenz. “A floating garden can increase the ecological value of a body of water and its functional performance in the short term,” Professor Werner Manz is convinced.
According to Höhne, depending on the scientific results, the biotope could be a first step towards large-scale greening of the hitherto rather dreary harbor basin. Because then he would like to present to the city and the owner of the water area an overall concept for the ecological upgrading of the harbor basin. That would be beneficial not only for animals, but also for humans.
