Odile Rodríguez de la Fuente opens the Blue Zone Forum Navalia Meeting 2025 with a calling to live in harmony with nature

The State Delegate, Fran González, opened the institutional inauguration together with Javier Arnau, Director of Navalia

"Nature is the best mirror we have access to. It helps us understand who we are. We must be able to reconsider who we are in relation to our environment." With these words, Odile Rodríguez de la Fuente addressed the audience attending to the opening of the Blue Zone Forum Navalia Meeting 2025, especially the younger audience she usually addresses to. The daughter of the well-known famous naturalist Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente was responsible for opening.

Accompanied by the well-known meteorologist and communicator Mercedes Martín, the State Delegate in the Free Trade Zone, Fran González, and the Director of Navalia, Javier Arnau, have inaugurated this new edition, accompanied by the Mayor of Cádiz, Bruno García. Navantia’s president, Ricardo Domínguez, and the first vice-president of the Government and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, wanted to show their support for the event and were present online, as their schedules made it impossible for them to attend in person.

After the institutional opening and presentation by Odile Rodríguez de la Fuente, the authorities toured the exhibition area, where they greeted exhibitors and attended to some demonstrations by the start-ups and organisations located there.

The day was filled with knowledge-sharing opportunities for every single taste. The panel discussion of ‘Marine renewable energies beyond wind power’, featuring Iolanda Piedra, president of the Balearic Islands Maritime and Logistics Cluster; Pablo Alcón Valero, director of offshore activities for Spain and Portugal at Qair Group, a company specialising in renewable energies, particularly wind energy; and Pedro Mayorga, CEO and co-founder of Enerocean S.L., a company specialised in the development and manufacture of technology for marine wind energy, particularly floating systems for offshore wind turbines, has attracted particular attention. All of them were moderated by Laura Rodríguez Couce, business development director at Instra Ingenieros.

In the afternoon, ports took centre stage at the round table discussion entitled ‘Strategy for port and maritime transport cooperation to improve the competitiveness of the Iberian Pole’, presented by Gerardo Landaluce, President of the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras; Nieves Roqueñí, President of the Port Authority of Gijón; and Joaquim Gonzalves, Executive Administrator of the Port of Leixoes, one of Portugal's most important ports, moderated by Teófila Martínez, President of Cadiz Bay Port Authority.

Another event which has attracted a great interest today was the ‘Thinking Azul Round Table. Blue Economy Initiatives for Territorial Competitiveness’, which was attended by experts from the General Secretariat for Fisheries, the University of Cadiz, CEI Mar and Cadiz and Algeciras city councils.