Bottlenose dolphins in the Alboran Sea and Gulf of Vera, Spain
Bottlenose dolphins are a very common species in the Alboran Sea. Found mainly in coastal waters along the shelf edge, bottlenose dolphins often aggregate in big groups of over 100 individuals in key foraging areas as around the island of Alboran and the submerged volcanic mountains and escarpments south of Almería.
As a result of twenty years of monitoring, a series of sites have been proposed as marine protected areas for the bottlenose dolphin under the EU Habitat Directive. Perhaps the most striking MPA proposed are those of the Mazarron escarpment in the Gulf of Vera and the Island of Alboran, both relatively large in comparison to other Habitat Directive MPA proposals.
Proposed Marine Protected Areas in the Alboran Sea and Gulf of Vera, Spain. © Alnitak.
For both of these MPAs the process of developing management plans has recently been put underway. Unfortunately, however, the proposal by Alnitak of creating an MPA in the waters south of Almeria - probably the most important site for bottlenose dolphins - has not been included in Spain’s Natura 2000 network, despite the amount and quality of scientific backing to this proposal.
Common bottlenose dolphins photographed in the Alboran Sea. Photos © Alnitak.
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