Good news for anyone who still wants to swim after last summer's nautical chaos. Since April 1st, every boat rental operator on the Saint-Tropez port is obliged to run a 20-minute minimum safety briefing for each renter, covering protected zones, speed limits across the gulf, and, crucially, no anchoring on posidonie seagrass beds.
We've been waiting for this one a long time. Every summer you'd watch Jet-Ski pilots throttle flat-out toward les Canebiers, weaving between swimmers. Or drop anchor straight into the seagrass, those aquatic plants that take centuries to recover. Done now. The rental operator is liable. You sign the paperwork. And if you're reckless, you pay 750 euros in fines when you return the boat.
Expected outcome: fewer cowboys, more quiet for everyone, herbiers intact. The gulf holds 40 percent of the Var's posidonie seagrass meadows, a unique, fragile ecosystem. Each anchor dropped is a wound that takes 80 years to heal. So yes, the rule leans the right way.
