The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has approved an order to incorporate seven new protected marine spaces into the list of enclaves of the Natura 2000 network, a catalog that includes places of community interest and areas of special protection for birds (ZEPA).
The measure published on December 30 in the Official State Gazette means increasing the protected marine area in Spain from 12% to 21% and getting closer to the goal of reaching 30% before 2030. This objective has been set in the Biological Diversity Convention and the State Strategic Plan for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity for 2030.
The future marine protected areas are distributed across the three Spanish marine regions. In the Mediterranean region there is the Ibiza Channel and the Alicante Cannons marine space. In the Canary Islands, two areas are designated (the south-west seamounts of the islands and the north-east seamounts). Finally, in the Atlantic region, the western strait and the marine space of Jaizkibel-Capbretón (located in front of the Basque coast) will be protected, as well as the great migratory corridor for the protection of birds along the coasts of ' Asturias and Galicia.
These areas add up to an additional protected surface of more than 9.3 million hectares.
Five of the seven new areas designated for protection are important for marine habitats and species; one for birds (that of the migratory corridor), and another for both marine habitats and species and for birds (the western strait). And what values stand out in these areas? Alicante's canyons include seamounts where there are habitats of community interest, such as white corals, gorgonian forests and black corals. In the Ibiza channel, the presence of the underwater mountain Stone Sponge Seamount stands out, with its base at a depth of 1,300 meters and its summit at 730 meters, and whose name is due to the presence of a community of sponges siliceous
The western area of the Strait of Gibraltar stands out for its high biological productivity. It is a feeding area for species of cetaceans, such as the common bottlenose dolphin, the spotted dolphin, the bottlenose dolphin, the common bottlenose dolphin, the sperm whale, the killer whale and the fin whale, among other species.
The Jaizkibel-Capbretón marine area is valued for the presence of red and brown algae, polychaete reefs and rock formations with an abundance of sponges and cnidarians. For its part, the ecological role played by the Cantabrian migratory corridor is very noteworthy, through which more than a million birds pass each summer and autumn, most of which come from northern Europe and Western Siberia. The high productivity of the area makes it an important feeding area where, among other species, the three-toed gull, the Iberian common grebe, the storm bird, the Atlantic gray vulture and the Atlantic cormorant breed. .
"After so many years of research by our scientists in these areas and seeing first-hand the beauty and richness of their biodiversity, they celebrate the designation as marine protected areas", says Pascale Moehrle, executive director of the 'oenagé Oceana in Europe. "Now it is urgent to go further and make this announcement not limited to marking simple lines on a map, but that it involves real protection", adds Moehrle.
Once designated for protection, as established by law, the areas must have preventive management measures until the moment when the corresponding management plan is drawn up, which will define the details of the protection. Both the measures and the plan must ensure the conservation of the site and reduce or eliminate any damage to the ecosystems. Oceana stresses at this point that Spain allows bottom trawling within these protected areas, "despite the fact that it is an activity incompatible with the conservation of space".
"Adequate management must be ensured, because destructive fishing remains a common activity in marine protected areas", says Moehrle.
