Medes Islands Diving: Exploring Spain’s Most-Protected Marine Reserve

Will Appleyard visits one of the Mediterranean’s most-protected environments just off the coast of the Costa Brava, and finds a thriving marine habitat that is a Mecca for divers

Off Catalunya’s Costa Brava near the town of L’Estartit, just half a mile or so away from the beach, the rocky Medes Islands appear to stand dry, barren and devoid of much in the way of life – unlike the town itself which, sat in the province of Girona, is a typical Mediterranean tourist destination, and has no fewer than 12 dive centers to speak of.

Such a concentration of dive centres can only mean that there’s something special to see here, and that perhaps those islands are not so lifeless after all.

Why the Medes Islands Are a Marine Conservation Success Story

The limestone rocks that make up the Medes Islands are one of the Mediterranean’s most-protected environments, with 52 acres of archipelago and 1,262 acres of protected sea surrounding it. This place, therefore, in a way, flips the middle finger to the old diver’s adage that ‘the Med is dead’. While Mediterranean destinations such as Malta and Gozo, and Cyprus, have carved out a reputation for great wreck diving, speak to your average diver about Med diving in general and they’ll often scoff, while pointing you in the direction of the Egyptian Red Sea for some ‘decent’ diving.

Underwater tunnels and caves penetrate these seven islets, which sit tightly together and close to the French border, where the Pyrenees peter out, descending into the Parc Natural de Torroella de Montgrí. Overall, the Medes Islands form the final tips of the Montgrí, Medes Islands, and Baix Ter Natural Parks and, in 1983, the islands were declared protected.

Besides the Columbretes Islands (Valencia) and Cabo de Palos (Murcia), there are few places, certainly within the Spanish and Catalan Mediterranean coast, with such protection in place. For instance, it is forbidden to step foot on the Medes islands, which leaves the Eurasian eagle owls, bats, yellow-legged gulls, little egrets and peregrine falcons (to mention a few winged topside inhabitants) in peace.

Diving the Caves, Walls and Pinnacles of the Medes

Diving wise there are 13 buoyed mooring sites surrounding the islands, with dive centers operating a collaborative booking-only based diving rotation system, in order to limit the pressure on each dive site.

‘Diver soup’ is a problem that occurs around the world at many popular diving destinations and, over time, high, continuous concentrations of divers have an adverse effect on delicate marine environments.

In diving, it’s said ‘take only pictures and leave only bubbles’, or just take pictures if you’re diving with a rebreather. The entrances to the cracks, caverns and caves around the Medes are moustached with large, yet intricate red and yellow gorgonian sea-fans. Also adorned with these fans are certain rock pinnacles, usually the ones exposed to currents and only visible to those exploring underwater. These fans are one of the main attractions here for divers, alongside exploring within the submerged caves themselves, together with the masses of fish that appear here over the summer.

The department of biology at UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) monitor the gorgonians for signs of diver damage and the effects caused by our warming planet. Of course, a ban on fishing here means that there are fish – particularly the dusky grouper – living here virtually undisturbed, and a meaty fish with a massive mouth dished up in many a Med-side restaurant.

Outside the caves, island walls plunge into the deep and pinnacles protrude from the seabed. Healthy fields of Neptune sea grass or Posidonia Oceanica also flourish. The main threat to these important ‘lungs of the sea’ grasses, which is in decline in most areas, is boat anchors. However, with the buoy system in place for mooring boats and anchoring totally forbidden, the grass, a ‘carbon sink’ and endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, is plentiful.

Pollution is also a threat to these grasses. Agricultural run-off, sewage, and industrial pollutants increase nutrient levels in the water, leading to eutrophication. This causes algal blooms, which block the sunlight necessary for seagrass photosynthesis. Visually, it’s a little boring to look at for a diver, but its presence here means that we are exploring within a healthy ecosystem. I mentioned that the town L’Estartit, which services the diving at the Medes Islands, has (when I last checked) no fewer than 12 dive centers. I dived with Ocean Sub L’Estartit (www.oceansub-estartit.com). Now that number of centers is quite a lot for a small town, and with that means that it’s not really a ‘diving’s best-kept secret’ type of destination. But with the diving demographic being around 70% French, due to its close proximity to the border, I think that where the global diving fraternity is concerned, perhaps it still is relatively secret. Between June and September, the marine biodiversity at the islands reaches its peak and this is when water visibility is at its very best. I’ve visited supposed protected marine reserves in other parts of the country, where loose programs ‘protect’ a zone comprising just a few meagre feet out from the shoreline.

Outside of the ‘protection’ zone, fishing is permitted. Of course, the marine life doesn’t know where the boundaries are, so anything living there has only a limited chance to really flourish. The Medes Marine Protection Area, however, covers a much-wider area than just the islands themselves, also including local coastline, the mouth of the river Ter, which begins its 173 mile journey flowing towards the sea from its source at Vallter in the Catalan Pyrenees and the coastal mountains. The Mongrí Massif, punctured with prehistoric caves dating back 300,000 years, also falls within this remit.

Beyond the Islands: Cliffs, Wrecks and Coastal Diving

Exploring the area by kayak is just as appealing to me as exploring it underwater. It’s a short paddle out to the islands, perhaps 40 minutes at a leisurely pace with the wind on my back.

The wind has a habit of picking up here in the afternoon during spring and summer and so we venture out during the mornings, launching from the beach. The coastal cliffs themselves are probably more fun to paddle around than the islands, and here too can be found some exciting dive sites, with plenty of caves, caverns and even a wreck – the Reggio Messina.

The Reggio Messina, now broken up into three main sections, lays on the seabed at a depth of 104ft close to a steep cliff wall. The main deck section starts at around 88ft and we reach this by descending a buoyed mooring line. When the boat was whole, she measured 400 feet long and 55 feet wide and was towed here from Barcelona to be purpose-sunk on the Montgrí coast as an artificial reef and, of course, a diving attraction. She didn’t quite end up resting where she was planned to be on the seabed and instead was broken into three large sections by easterly storms battering the coast.

When to Dive the Medes Islands for Best Visibility and Life

This summer I’ve been diving here regularly, staying in my camper van on the fringes of the town. As the summer months pass by, it’s clear to see how the marine life becomes ecologically richer and richer, with each dive better than the last, especially moving into September, when the diving here appears to be at its very best. We stay in the water for just under an hour each time, but I could easily stay longer if permitted, watching barracuda hunting, bait-balling small fish flashing back and forth in the shallows, and curious grouper enjoying their own reflection in my camera dome port. We keep an eye out into the blue too, watching out for eagle rays, occasionally spotting one flying past, yet too far and fast for me to get a shot. Larger migratory species such as tuna, sunfish, and even dolphins are occasionally spotted around the islands, drawn to the rich feeding grounds.

The marina is a busy place with the peripheral hiss of air compressors filling tanks and divers clanking equipment while boarding and disembarking boats of different sizes. The town itself is a mixture of faded grandeur and typical Mediterranean holiday destination-style apartments, with wetsuits draped drying over balconies, and the hum of busy bars, shops and restaurants. The cliffs that rise above the back of the town are climbable, with several single and multi-pitch bolted sport climbing routes to play on. When on these routes with my partner, enjoying a view of the islands and coast from above, I can’t decide whether I’d rather be on the wall, on the sea or underwater – which, of course, is a wonderful problem to have.

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