Medes Islands Marine Reserve

The Medes Islands are seven limestone islets off L'Estartit on Catalonia's Costa Brava, protected from fishing since 1983 and formalized as a strictly protected marine reserve in 1990, now the core of the Montgrí, Medes Islands and Baix Ter Natural Park. Barely a square kilometer of fully protected sea produces the Mediterranean's most convincing rewilding: dusky groupers the size of dogs loafing under divers, dense walls of gold and red gorgonians, barracuda schools, eagle rays, and tunnels and caves worn through the rock — including the swim-throughs of the Dofí caves. It is the busiest dive reserve in Spain, run on a numbered-permit system that caps daily dives.

The rules that bind divers

Diving inside the strictly protected zone requires an individual authorization under a daily quota, administered through the natural park and booked via the authorized dive centers of L'Estartit; each diver pays a per-dive reserve tax. Fishing, spearfishing, collecting, and anchoring are all banned around the islands — boats tie to the reserve's mooring buoys, themselves regulated and fee-bearing. Night diving is limited, groups stay with licensed guides or certified autonomy, and touching or feeding wildlife is prohibited. The surrounding partially protected coastal zone allows regulated diving without the same quota.

Fees & permits: Per-dive reserve tax plus mooring fees, collected through authorized centers; the daily diver quota makes advance booking essential in summer.