A new marine reserve will be created, which will be renamed Ponent de Mallorca.

The Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Natural Environment, through the Directorate General of Fisheries, with the support of professional fishermen, has made available to the public and the most representative organisations all the information related to the procedure for drawing up a decree creating the Ponent de Mallorca Marine Reserve. In this way, the Marine Reserve of the islands of Toro and Malgrats will be modified, and the new one will be called Ponent de Mallorca.

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Toro and Malgrats Islands Marine Reserve

The Director General of Fisheries, Antoni M. Grau, explained that the Toro and Malgrats Islands Marine Reserve, off the coast of Calvià (Mallorca), was declared in 2022 as an extension of the former Toro Island and Malgrats Islands marine reserves. However, Grau stated that “its creation did not resolve the issues it was intended to solve, as it neither had the support of the fishing sector nor satisfied the aspirations of its promoters, in particular, the Calvià Town Council”.

For this reason, insisted the director general of Fisheries, “it was important to make this modification and create the new marine reserve with the support of the sector”.

Thus, the main objective of this decree is to establish the geographical limits of the new marine reserve and to regulate the extractive activities, both professional and recreational, and underwater activities. Similarly, Decree 41/2015 will be modified, concerning the use of dynamic positioners in recreational fishing boats and the timetable of working days for recreational fishing.

The declaration of the Ponent de Mallorca Marine Reserve will extend the recovery of commercial fish stocks, characteristic of marine reserves in the southwest of the Bay of Palma, a fact that will undoubtedly favour the artisanal fishing sector as well as economic activities related to fish watching.

The Regional Ministry recalls that, in the Balearic Islands, marine reserves have proved to be an important fisheries management tool for recovering commercial fish stocks, conserving natural marine habitats and helping professional small-scale fishing. All in all, the marine reserves have established themselves as a reference point for tourist diving, with more than 70,000 dives per year. The Balearic Islands currently have a network of 12 marine reserves with a total surface area of 67,000 hectares.