Karaburun Peninsula Marine Reserve

The Karaburun Peninsula forms the western arm of Vlora Bay and is protected within Albania's first and largest marine park, where decades of restricted access have allowed grouper, sea turtles, and dense gorgonian populations to recover to levels rarely seen elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The peninsula's dramatic limestone cliffs continue underwater as near-vertical walls plunging to 50 metres, festooned with red and yellow gorgonians, massive barrel sponges, and the largest dusky grouper populations in the Adriatic region. Loggerhead sea turtles forage year-round in the posidonia meadows in the calmer bays along the eastern shore, making sightings almost guaranteed from June through October.