Spain is getting closer to establishing its first and only marine national park.
Last week, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved the establishment of a marine preserve at Mar de las Calmas in the Canary Islands.
The new park will become Spain’s seventh national park. It will be the first established by the country that’s entirely underwater.
The forthcoming marine park is found south of the island of El Hierro and will encompass an ocean area of some 24,000 hectares, or nearly 60,000 acres.
“We are one step closer to seeing the first exclusively marine park in Southern Europe,” the nonprofit organization Oceana said in a post on the social media platform X, previously Twitter.
The region is said to be rich in biodiversity. But it also hosts existing fishing and tourism activities. The effort to establish a park there involved careful negotiations with communities relying on fishing and tourism.
The final, formal establishment of a park in the marine zone will take some more time. At least another year will be needed to go through all the steps necessary to declare the waters of Mar de las Calmas as an official zone under Spanish government protection, according to EuroWeekly.
©2024 Public Parks
Park Info
Park Name:
Mar de las Calmas
Location:
Canary Islands, Spain
More Information:
