The Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) proposes the “Western Strait” marine space as a Site of Community Importance (SCI) of the Natura 2000 Network, and publishes on its website, www.marm.es, the procedure for the public information of the proposal.

The MARM maintains that the Western Strait meets all the requirements to be proposed as an SCI. integrating into the Natura 2000 Network, since the space is exclusively marine and adjacent to the existing SCIs in the area, which include marine surface and which have already been integrated into the European Commission’s List of Sites of Community Importance.

In addition, the Strait is the only natural connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which produces a system of currents that is responsible for the water-saline balance in the Mediterranean basin and the transport of biomass from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The biological productivity of this area allows for the existence of an extraordinary biodiversity, characterised by the regular presence of numerous species of cetaceans, including an important population of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), a species included in the Habitats Directive and the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Law. The porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), an Annex II species, is also present in the waters of the Western Strait.

The Strait is also a key place for the conservation of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), a priority species in Annex II, whose populations frequent the area or use it as a corridor on their migratory journeys between spawning and feeding sites. Other species of cetaceans that are usually present in the area or use it in their migratory transits are the killer whale (Orcinus orca), the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), the striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), the pilot whale (Globicephala melas), the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and the fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), all of which are included in Annex IV of the Law.