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Mediterranean Scuba Diving Within The Illes Medes Nature Reserve
More than 1,345 different marine species have been recorded 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.
Conservation of the islands started in 1983, and in 1990 the preservation was enlarged to the seabed flora and fauna, encouraging an amazing recovery of the indigenous species and turning the area into a shelter for numerous species faced with 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 added protected 418 hectare area stretching up to the Montgri coast. A new Natural Park has been pledged by the Government of Catalunya to include the coast north all the way to Cala Montgo, L'Escala.
Caves at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
The various 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 excellent opportunities for divers to experience (with a dive guide) the separate fauna that elect to live in semi-darkness.
One of the most talked-of sites at the Medes Islands is Dolphin Cave, named after 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 looking out into the blue for cruising eagle rays and visiting sunfish and dolphins.
There's another cave system on one side 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 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, providing diving all year around. A variety of depths allows dives for every level of diver, and even snorkelers can enjoy the amazing abundance of underwater marine life of the Medes Islands. In the shallow depths we can explore a dense mantle of brightly lit seaweeds with over a hundred species hosting shoals of silvery bream, colourful wrasse, and exquisite nudibranchs. Beneath 10-15 meters we notice 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 a model of good protectorship. During 2009 scuba divers took part in an assessment of the the Illas Medes ecosystems by filling out questionnaires following their dives. Questions asked about the abundance of different species counted and the number of divers, snorkelers and boats seen at the dives sites.
The findings of the continuing assessment of the Medes Islands Reserve will indicate the level of protection 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 captivating sites for Mediterranean scuba diving.
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