The Government of the Balearic Islands has pledged to declare the Illa de l’Aire as a marine reserve. Marine reserves are protection tools that serve to act as fisheries management tools both to allow fish populations to recover and to conserve the marine environment. In this sense, the waters surrounding the Illa de l’Aire constitute an area of high value in marine resources, not only for its diversity but also for the posidonia meadows, in danger of extinction. The survival of fishing in Menorca requires good conservation of marine resources and rational exploitation.
It is many years since a marine reserve was declared in Menorca in the Southeast area of the island, long before Menorca was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1993. The new marine reserve of the Illa de l’Aire that the Government is proposing will extend from Biniancolla to S’Algar with a protected area that will reach 592.26 hectares.
The area, that is proposed in its entirety, will prohibit all extractive activity, and as a marine reserve will have specific regulations for the area. Within this delimitation, ten caves will be included, of which two are already classified as very vulnerable.
It will be the second marine reserve in Menorca following the example of the one in northern Menorca, which was created in 1999 with the same objective. Specifically, it includes the waters distributed between Cap Gros, Illa des Porros and Punta des Morter, and there are three areas of different levels of protection. First, an integral reserve, which goes from Pla de Mar to Cala Barril, where any type of fishing or extraction of flora and fauna is prohibited. Then, a second zone of special protection that occupies part of the Bay of Fornells, where only professional fishermen can fish. And a third zone, which covers the rest of the reserve, where the public can fish with special licence.
