Scuba Season
Underwater reef at Medes Islands
Declining

Medes Islands

Spain · Mediterranean

The Medes Islands off Catalonia's Costa Brava are one of the Mediterranean's longest protected marine reserves — schools of barracuda and grouper, the SS Reggio Messina wreck nearby, and the densest fish biomass in the Med.

How this reef is doing

ⓘ How we measure this

Reef state

Declining

MPA gorgonian gardens. Recurring marine heatwaves have damaged red gorgonians in shallow water; deep walls hold up better.

Coral cover

12%
LowHealthy
Low

Fish life

Not surveyed

Heat

SafeBleaching

Hot enough that coral is bleaching now.

Bleaching now

Fishing

QuietBusy

Protected on paper, but boats are still busy nearby.

Patrolled

Sources · Reef survey · NOAA Coral Reef Watch · Global Fishing Watch and reef gravity

Coral cover over time

Live coral cover, by survey year

Across surveys in 2014 and 2024, live coral cover here has held steady at about 12%. Every point is a real survey reading, never a projection.

Live coral cover, percent by year

40%0%20142024
Two surveys
Reef survey

What you will see

12 species across the dive sites here

Dive sites

What divers say

Forty years of protection and you can taste it underwater. The grouper come up to look at you.
— Mediterranean diver

Good to know

Park permits

Daily diver quotas; book ahead in summer.

Gear & getting wet

  • Basic kit

    • Mask and fins
    • BCD and regulator
    • 7mm wetsuit or drysuit · cold water
    • Dive computer

  • For specific sites

    • 5mm wetsuit · Medes Islands Reserve
    • Hood · Medes Islands Reserve