Above 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 exemplary natural reserve in the western Mediterranean.

Protection of Iles Medes began in 1983, and in 1990 the protection was increased to the seabed flora and fauna, encouraging an amazing recovery of the indigenous species and turning the area into a shelter for numerous species on the brink of extinction. The zones supporting marine seagrasses like Posidonia oceanica are especially 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 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 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 divemaster) the distinctive species that prefer 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 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 watching out into the blue for cruising eagle rays and visiting sunfish and dolphins.

There's a second cave system nearby with its groupers, always ready to pose for photographs, illuminated by a vast funnel. Yellow cup corals deck the walls and camouflaged scorpionfish perch concealed 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, past the most beautiful yellow and red gorgonian corals.

Scuba Diving at Medes Islands Marine Reserve
There are 10 buoyed dive sites, providing diving during every season. A range of depths provides dives for every level of diver, and even snorkelers can enjoy the colourful array of underwater marine life of the Medes Islands. In the shallow depths we can peer into a dense mantle of brightly lit seaweeds with over a hundred species hosting shoals of silvery bream, colourful wrasse, and delightful nudibranchs. Below 10-15 meters we discover 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 per annum, is a model of good protectorship. Throughout 2009 scuba divers participated in an assessment of the the Iles Medes 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 findings of the continuing assessment of the Medes Islands Reserve will indicate the level of control required to safeguard this little archipelago for future generations. An area of exceptional ecological significance, 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 interesting sites for Mediterranean scuba diving.

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