Med Recreational Diving At The Medes Islands Nature Reserve
Over 1,345 different marine species have been cataloged there since Jacques Cousteau went scuba diving there and the Medes Islands ecosystem is justly classified as the best natural reserve in the western Mediterranean.
Preservation of the Medes Islands began in 1983, and in 1990 the protection was increased to the seabed flora and fauna, encouraging an amazing recovery of the natural marine life and changing the area into a refuge for numerous species faced with extinction. The ecosystems 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 declared by the Catalan Government to include the coast northward all the way to Cala Montgo, L'Escala.
Tunnels at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
The plentiful tunnels and caves evidence 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 exceptional opportunities for divers to experience (with a dive leader) the distinctive species that prefer to live in semi-darkness.
One of the most well-known sites at Illas Medes is Dolphin Cave, because of a statue at the southern entrance. Within is a resting place for large groupers, meagres and shoals of silvery bream. Along the reef outside divers glide through shoals of bream and clouds of anthias whilst also scanning out into the blue for cruising eagle rays and visiting sunfish and dolphins.
There's a second cave system close by with its groupers, always ready to pose for photographs, illuminated by a vast funnel. Yellow cup corals adorn the walls and camouflaged scorpionfish perch unseen on ledges. Mediterranean moray eels and congers live in cracks in the rocks. From here a further tunnel leads back through the island and out onto the reef again, passing by the most beautiful yellow and red gorgonian corals.
Scuba Diving at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
There are 10 buoyed dive sites, allowing diving during the whole year. A range of depths provides dives for all levels, and even snorkelers can enjoy the colourful spectacle of undersea marine life of the Medes Islands. In the shallow zones we can explore a dense blanket of brightly lit seaweeds with over a hundred species hosting shoals of silvery bream, colourful wrasse, and delicate nudibranchs. Below 10-15 meters we find 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 over 600 species.
The Medes Islands Marine Reserve, with its 65,000 annual dives, is an example of good stewardship. During 2009 scuba divers helped with 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 seen at the dives sites.
The ongoing evaluation of the Medes Islands Reserve will demonstrate the level of protection required to safeguard this small 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 exciting sites for Mediterranean scuba diving.
Med Recreational Diving At The Medes Islands Nature Reserve
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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