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Mediterranean Recreational Diving Inside The Illes Medes Protected Zone
More than 1,345 different marine species have been listed there since Jacques Cousteau went scuba diving there and the Medes Islands ecosystem is deservedly classified as the exemplary natural reserve in the western Mediterranean.
Protection of the Medes Islands started in 1983, and in 1990 the protection was increased to the seabed flora and fauna, encouraging an amazing recovery of the ecosystems and making the area into a niche for numerous species on the brink of extinction. The zones supporting marine seagrasses like Posidonia oceanica are particularly productive as they are the breeding habitats for many crucial species.
The Medes Islands Protected Zone covers an area of 93,2 hectares with an additional 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 abundant 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 guide) the separate species that prefer to live in semi-darkness.
One of the most well-known sites at Iles Medes is Dolphin Cave, given this name a statue at the southern entrance. Inside 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 looking out into the blue for cruising eagle rays and visiting sunfish and dolphins.
There's another cave system close by with its groupers, always ready to pose for photographs, illuminated by a vast funnel. Yellow cup corals deck the walls and camouflaged scorpionfish perch hidden 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, past the most beautiful yellow and red gorgonian corals.
Scuba Diving at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
There are 10 buoyed dive sites, providing diving all year around. A variety of depths provides dives for every level of diver, and even snorkelers can enjoy the amazing abundance of subaqua marine life of the Medes Islands. In the shallow zones 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. Beneath 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 dives each year, is an example of good custodianship. Throughout 2009 scuba divers participated in an assessment of the the Illas Medes ecosystems by filling out questionnaires following their dives. Questions asked about the abundance of different species seen and the number of divers, snorkelers and boats seen at the dives sites.
The findings of the working analysis of the Medes Islands Reserve will direct the level of control required to safeguard this little archipelago for future generations. An area of exceptional ecological value, 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 exciting sites for Mediterranean scuba diving.
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