A paradise for groupers, in the Natural Park you will find an impressive variety of fauna and flora: eagle rays, barracudas, moray eels, amberjacks, red coral, gorgonians, bars, scorpionfish, dentex, wrasse-peacocks, crows...
The Medes Islands Marine Nature Reserve was established thanks to different values of protection of the marine environment.
- Posidonia herbs (Posidonia oceanica), which form one of the richest ecosystems in the entire Mediterranean. It is very important not to anchor on them.
- Fish communities; stability of which is of vital importance for the balance of our seas. This is the reason why all types of fishing are prohibited in the protected area.
- The coralligenous bottoms, made up of extremely fragile and very slow-growing species. They can be damaged only by a touch, for this reason diving activities are limited.
- Nesting birds: threatened species find nutrients, tranquility and shelter to reproduce.
Today there are a number of restrictions that apply to the Medes Islands reserve in order to protect underwater life and maintain the sustainability of the economy.
The most relevant are
• The prohibition of anchoring. Anchoring is strictly limited to buoys with low impact fixing.
• Regulated dives, both in number of total diver and number of dives per dive site. In any case, it must be practiced very carefully, since the effect of continued rubbing would end up damaging the gorgonians, corals and other sessile animals with a brittle structure. Only authorized diving centers can take divers. The guidance of divers by instructors is mandatory in many cases.
• Navigation is authorized but with a maximum speed of 3 knots
• It is forbidden to collect anything from the water. This obviously includes the ban on fishing.
• It is strictly forbidden to throw anything into the water. and feed the fish
• Any type of contact with the emerged part of the islands is prohibited.
• Snorkeling is regulated and dive centers need authorization to take their clients.
Even at shallow depths, the fish in the Medes Islands are amazing by their spectacular sizes. The absence of fishing for decades allows them to grow and mature to record size and become excellent breeders. As the years have gone by, the number of fish has increased, to the point of carrying capacity, which means that we can find fish around the reserve that have the same characteristics, since they must leave due to lack of territory.
