Upwards of 1,345 different marine species have been collated there since Jacques Cousteau went scuba diving there and the Medes Islands ecosystem is deservedly classified as the finest natural reserve in the western Mediterranean.
Protection of Illas Medes started in 1983, and in 1990 the preservation was expanded to the seabed flora and fauna, encouraging a remarkable recovery of the ecosystems and turning the area into a niche for numerous species faced with extinction. The zones supporting marine seagrasses like Posidonia oceanica are exceptionally productive as they are the breeding habitats for many crucial species.
The Medes Islands Protected Zone covers an area of 93,2 hectares with a supplementary protected 418 hectare area stretching up to the Montgri coast. A new Natural Park has been proclaimed by the Government of Catalunya to include the coast to the north all the way to Cala Montgo, L'Escala.
Caves at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
The abundant tunnels and caves give the clue 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 separate fauna that like to live in semi-darkness.
One of the most renowned sites at Iles Medes is Dolphin Cave, named after a statue at the southern entrance. Inside is a refuge 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 another cave system handy with its groupers, always ready to pose for photographs, illuminated by a great funnel. Yellow cup corals robe the walls and camouflaged scorpionfish perch unnoticed on ledges. Mediterranean moray eels and congers live in crevices. From here a further tunnel leads back through the island and out onto the reef again, via 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 variety of depths allows immersions for every level of diver, and even snorkelers can enjoy the amazing variety of underwater marine life of the Medes Islands. In the shallow zones we can delve into a dense mantle of brightly lit seaweeds with over a hundred species hosting shoals of silvery bream, colourful wrasse, and elegant nudibranchs. Beneath 10-15 meters we see 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 upwards of 600 species.
The Illas Medes Protected Area, with its 65,000 divers every year , is a model of good custodianship. In 2009 scuba divers participated in an assessment of the the Medes Islands ecosystems by filling out questionnaires following their dives. Questions asked about the abundance of different species present and the number of divers, snorkelers and boats present at the dives sites.
The results of the working assessment of the Medes Islands Reserve will direct the level of conservation 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 sea floor around the Medes Islands, making the area one of the most captivating sites for Mediterranean scuba diving.
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