Islas Columbretes
The islands "Islas Columbretes" are situated 50 Km southeast of Oropesa / Castellon (70 Km north of Valencia).
The group is made of 4 small islands, from wich the biggest is La Isla Grande, La Ferrera, La Forada and at least El Bergantin.You will also find a lot of shallows and some stones, and all is vulcanic.
The area is since 1990 a Natural Park. The Park is 9,26 * 4,6 Km, that makes 4400 hectars.
I was diving in a lot of diffrent places of the world and this group of islands is still one of the best for me. In 25 Years I have more then 2000 hours diving in the Islands and I still enyoi it every time.
When the Islands where not a Park, it was good, but now it is even better. It is now more difficult, because of the permission for diving, but you have to get them to see this beutyfull place.
Since three or four Years there are some changes.on the way to the Islands I rarly can see Bluefin Tuna, Swordfish, Delphins and Turtles. The Tuna, Swordfish and maybe the Turtles are a problem of commercial fishing (Tunafish - Ringnet fisherie , Swordfish and Turtle - Longline) but the Delphin in my opinion is a problem of waterquality.
In the Islands you will find some places which where covered with plants and now it is only stone left. The problem of this is a green algae which is multiplicating when the waterquality is bad.(This problem we know allready since 15 years at the coast.)
In the Islands you also will find some places which are the same like the time when the Islands where not Natural Park. This is a problem of commercial fishing (legal and illegal) and spearfishing (also illegal).There are some guards on the Island but they do not have anough authority and not enough mediums to control this.
The competent spanish authorities are in my opinion not competent enough to manage this. I think that they prefer to keep the spanish fisherman happy and they do not want the divers there. They are argumenting with the damige the divers are doing to the ground. They do not want to have the same like in the Red Sea. But Red Sea is Coral Reef and Columbretes stone.
At the moment 50 persons per day is the maximum allowed (high seasom) . But I think that in 4400 hectares it should be possible that some more people can dive and could see how the sea could be when we do not touch it.
If you want some more information about this Islands, here you have some more adresses (only spanish but with some pictures)
http://www.gva.es/coma/_Planification_Gestion_del_Medio/_parques/_columbretes/
y la otra es : http://nuvol.uji.es/~cmiro/scuba/index.html
If you like, you will find some of my pictures under "FOTOS"