Mediterranean Recreational Diving In The Illas Medes Marine Reserve

Upwards of 1,345 different marine species have been discovered 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 first began in 1983, and in 1990 the preservation was enlarged to the seabed flora and fauna, encouraging an amazing recovery of the ecosystems and making the area into a shelter for numerous species in danger of extinction. The areas supporting marine seagrasses like Posidonia oceanica are exceptionally productive as they are the breeding habitats for many significant 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 declared by the Government of Catalunya to include the coast to the north all the way to Cala Montgo, L'Escala.

Caverns at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
The various tunnels and caves indicate 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 typical fauna that elect to live in semi-darkness.

One of the most talked-of sites at Iles Medes is Dolphin Cave, given this name 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 at the same time scanning out into the blue for cruising eagle rays and visiting sunfish and dolphins.

There's an often overlooked cave system handy with its groupers, always ready to pose for photographs, illuminated by a vast funnel. Yellow cup corals deck the walls and camouflaged scorpionfish perch unnoticed 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, passing by the most beautiful yellow and red gorgonian corals.

Scuba Diving at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
There are 10 buoyed dive sites, offering the opportunity for diving during the whole year. A variety of depths allows dives for every level of diver, and even snorkelers can enjoy the amazing variety of subaqua marine life of the Medes Islands. In the shallow depths we can explore a dense canopy of brightly lit seaweeds with over a hundred species hosting shoals of silvery bream, colourful wrasse, and delicate nudibranchs. Under 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 over 600 species.

The Medes Islands Marine Reserve, with its 65,000 divers every year , is a model of good protectorship. During 2009 scuba divers helped with an assessment of the the Medes Islands ecosystems by answering questionnaires following their dives. Questions asked about the abundance of different species present and the number of divers, snorkelers and boats seen at the dives sites.

The findings of the working appraisal of the Medes Islands Reserve will indicate 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 sea around the Medes Islands, making the area one of the most enchanting sites for Mediterranean scuba diving.

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