Channel of Menorca

The Channel of Menorca is a marine corridor with a minimum width of 36 kilometers, extending from Cala Ratjada (Mallorca) to Cap d’Artrutx.

It has shallow platform bottoms – a scarce 100 metres deep – of mixed nature, well preserved, and of extraordinary ecological value and high productivity.

Area characteristics:

Important biological communities develop in its depths, highly representative of the Mediterranean seashore depths.

In the more coastal areas there is a predominance of the meadows of the Mediterranean endemic phanerogam Posidonia oceanica (seagrass), which takes up large extensions of the seabed.

The Mäerl beds dominate in both extremes of the channel, and we find an

excellent representation of coraligenic communities between 30 and 40 metres deep, with the presence of benthonic species of great conservationist interest, such as the endangered red coral.

The Channel of Menorca is also an important feeding area for procellariiformes birds, such as the Balearic shearwater, and it is an essential area for the preservation of cetaceans.