The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has approved an order to incorporate seven new protected marine spaces in the list of enclaves of the Natura 2000 Network, a catalog that includes places of community interest and special areas for birds (Zepa).
The measure published on December 30 in the Official State Gazette means increasing the protected marine surface in Spain from 12% to 21%, and thus getting closer to the objective of reaching 30% before 2030. This objective has been set in the Convention of Biological Diversity and the State Strategic Plan for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity for 2030.
The future marine protected areas are distributed throughout the three Spanish marine regions. In the Mediterranean region are the Ibiza Channel and the Alicante Canyons Marine Space. In the Canary Islands, two areas are designated (the seamounts in the southwest of the islands and the seamounts in the northeast). Finally, in the Atlantic region, the Western Strait and the Jaizkibel-Capbretón Marine Space (located off 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 area of ??more than 9.3 million hectares.
Five of the seven new areas designated for protection are important for marine habitats and species; one of them for birds (the one in the migratory corridor); and another for both marine and bird habitats and species (the Western Strait).
And what values ??stand out in these areas? The Alicante Canyons include seamounts where habitats of community interest such as white corals, gorgonian forests and black corals are found. In the Ibiza Channel, the presence of the Stone Sponge Seamount seamount stands out, with its base at 1,300 meters deep and the summit at 730 meters, and whose name is due to the presence of a community of siliceous sponges.
The western area of ??the Strait of Gibraltar stands out for its high biological productivity. It is a feeding area for cetacean species, such as the common dolphin, the striped dolphin, the bottlenose dolphin, the pilot whale, the sperm whale, the killer whale and the fin whale, among other species.
The Jaizkibel-Capbretón marine space is valued for the presence of red and brown algae, polychaete reefs (worm-like invertebrates) and rock formations with an abundance of sponges and cnidarians. And, for its part, very notable is the ecological role played by the Cantabrian migratory corridor, where more than a million birds pass each summer-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 kittiwake, the Iberian common guillemot, the European storm petrel, the Atlantic Cory’s shearwater and the Atlantic shag breed.
“After so many years of research by our scientists in these areas and witnessing first-hand the beauty and richness of their biodiversity, we celebrate their designation as marine protected areas,” says Pascale Moehrle, executive director of the NGO Oceana in Europe. “Now it is urgent to go further and make this announcement not limited to marking simple lines on a map, but rather imply real protection,” she adds.
Once designated for protection, as provided by law, areas must have preventive management measures until such time as the management plan that will define the details of protection is developed. Both the measures and the plan must ensure the conservation of the place, reducing or eliminating any damage to the ecosystems. Oceana emphasizes at this point that Spain allows bottom trawling within these protected areas, “despite being an activity incompatible with the conservation of the space.” “Proper management must be ensured, because destructive fishing is still a common activity in marine protected areas,” says Moehrle.