Marine Environment

The upwelling of deep nutrient rich waters, which serve as sustenance for small microorganisms at the base of the food chain, is responsible for the extraordinary marine wealth of the islands. The circulation of marine and estuarine currents, the variety of substrates, and the seabed relief confer different ecological scenarios to the marine environment that determine the huge diversity of marine flora and fauna here, which is the great hidden treasure of the Park.

Rocky sea battered areas are inhabited by organisms such as barnacles, limpets, mussels, sea acorns, etc. that developed mechanisms to fix themselves onto rocks. Sea anemones, sea urchins, periwinkles, crabs, gobies and octopuses inhabit rock crevices along the tidal zone with increasing depth.

Sandy beds that lack fixed substrate have conditioned some organisms to live buried, which is the case of clams, cockles and razor clams, while others such as turbot, sepia or hermit crab blend in with the sea floor.

Other mobile beds are the ones made up of calcareous algae (Maerl beds) and coarse bottoms formed of shell remains, where we find communities similar to those in sandy beds.

Light and waves condition the distribution of marine flora, just like depth and soil characteristics do. Large brown algae such as laminaria are abundant in the outer islands and form true submarine forests.

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