Marine reserve north of Menorca

The marine reserve Norte de Menorca stretches over 5,199 hectares between Fornells and Cap Gros. It contains three areas with different levels of protection. An integral nature reserve that prohibits fishing and any influence on the flora and fauna, a protected area where only professional fishermen are allowed to fish, and a third area where fishing are allowed under special conditions.

Its founding in 1999 to protect coastal species and control fishing has led to a rich and diversified fauna growing up on the seabed of the island's north coast, creating a biotope that is hardly visible at any other part of the coast. Over the years, the Norte de Menorca has become one of the last untouched areas of the Mediterranean.

Its extraordinary good condition, its natural wealth and the biodiversity of the sea have made the Norte de Menorca marine reserve one of the natural treasures of the Balearic Islands.

With a depth of more than 30 meters near the coast, the seabed has a great wealth of different biotopes. Because of its ecological value, the Sa Nitja Posidonia reef, the groups of Cystoseira algae and the rock caves, where hundreds of fish live, are particularly noteworthy.

In the whole reserve, fishing with trawls, ringworm fishing, fishing with long lines and underwater hunt are forbidden, as well as fishing of invertebrates, which are already threatened now.