Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain

Isla de Tabarca

Isla de Tabarca lies about 11 nautical miles off the coast of Alicante and was declared the first marine reserve of Spain in 1986. The reserve protects a circle around the small limestone island and its surrounding seamounts and Posidonia meadows, and after more than three decades of protection it remains a benchmark for Mediterranean recovery. Dive sites around the island combine vertical walls dropping to 30 metres, large boulder fields and extensive Posidonia oceanica meadows on the inshore approach. The fish biomass is exceptional for the region, with very large dusky groupers approaching divers, brown meagre, common dentex schools, saddled seabream, white seabream and salema, octopus, scorpionfish, moray and conger eels and frequent barracuda from late summer. The Posidonia meadows host pipefish, juvenile fish and the recovering Pinna nobilis, the giant Mediterranean fan mussel. Visibility is consistent around 15 to 20 metres and currents are usually weak. The Valencian coast extends along the Mediterranean from the Ebro Delta to the Mar Menor and shelters several marine reserves including Tabarca, the first declared in Spain in 1986, and the Columbretes Islands further offshore. Water temperature ranges from 14 C in February to 26 C in August. Dive operators run from Alicante, Santa Pola, Javea and Calpe.