Mediterranean Recreational Diving In The Illes Medes Marine Protected Area
Over 1,345 different marine species have been collated there since Jacques Cousteau went scuba diving there and the Medes Islands ecosystem is justly classified as the exemplary natural reserve in the western Mediterranean.
Protection of the Medes Islands began in 1983, and in 1990 the protection was widened to the seabed flora and fauna, encouraging an amazing recovery of the natural marine life and turning the area into a shelter for numerous species on the brink of extinction. The zones supporting marine seagrasses like Posidonia oceanica are exceptionally productive as they are the breeding habitats for many important species.
The Medes Islands Protected Zone covers an area of 93,2 hectares with another protected 418 hectare area stretching up to the Montgri coast. A new Natural Park has been announced by the Catalan Government to include the coast northward all the way to Cala Montgo, L'Escala.
Caves at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
The various tunnels and caves show that this limestone archipelago was attached to the Montgri Massif over ten thousand years ago. Today caves around the Medes Islands and up the Montgrí coast towards L'Escala provide outstanding opportunities for divers to experience (with a dive leader) the distinctive species that opt to live in semi-darkness.
One of the most well-known sites at Illas Medes is Dolphin Cave, named after a statue at the southern entrance. Within is a home for large groupers, meagres and shoals of silvery bream. Along the reef outside divers glide through shoals of bream and clouds of anthias whilst scanning out into the blue for cruising eagle rays and visiting sunfish and dolphins.
There's a second cave system nearby with its groupers, always ready to pose for photographs, illuminated by a towering funnel. Yellow cup corals adorn the walls and camouflaged scorpionfish perch unseen on ledges. Mediterranean moray eels and congers live in crevices. From here a handy tunnel leads back through the island and out onto the reef again, past the most beautiful yellow and red gorgonian corals.
Scuba Diving at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
There are 10 buoyed dive sites, providing diving during the whole year. A range of depths provides immersions for all levels, and even snorkelers can enjoy the colourful spectacle of underwater marine life of the Medes Islands. In the shallow depths we can peer into a dense mantle of brightly lit seaweeds with over a hundred species hosting shoals of silvery bream, colourful wrasse, and delicate nudibranchs. Below 10-15 meters we discover light-deprived algae and pretty pink sea perch, large predatory dentex, eagle rays, octopus, lobster and big, friendly groupers. Below 20 meters we enter an area of gorgonian corals inhabited by more than 600 species.
The Medes Islands Marine Reserve, with its 65,000 annual dives, is a model of good protectorship. Throughout 2009 scuba divers participated in an assessment of the the Medes Islands ecosystems by completing questionnaires following their dives. Questions asked about the abundance of different species observed and the number of divers, snorkelers and boats observed at the dives sites.
The ongoing assessment of the Medes Islands Reserve will indicate the level of control required to safeguard this little archipelago for future generations. An area of exceptional ecological importance, all the underwater environments to be found in the Mediterranean are represented in the seabed around the Medes Islands, making the area one of the most interesting sites for Mediterranean scuba diving.
Mediterranean Recreational Diving In The Illes Medes Marine Protected Area
Did you know that Jacques Cousteau visited the Medes Islands in his marine research vessel Calypso back in 1955? He drew attention to the need to research, record and preserve the rich ecosystems that he found whilst scuba diving there.
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