Congress and Senate urge the Government to protect the sperm whale area of Menorca

The Joint Congress-Senate Commission on Insularity has approved a Non-Law Proposal (PNL) from the PSOE urging the Government to declare the area in the Mediterranean north of Menorca as a Marine Protected Area, where the marine research entity Tursiops has discovered a sperm whale breeding area.

The discovery was the result of the "Moby Mummy" project, a fieldwork effort by Tursiops to search for and locate a potential sperm whale breeding area around the Balearic Islands. This area was confirmed by the entity in October 2022 during the XIII Congress of the Spanish Society of Cetaceans.

Since then, Tursiops has been working to protect the area with an "ongoing dialogue" with the General Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests, and Desertification of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO). "At all times, the administration has been receptive to addressing the request for protection of the breeding area indicated by Tursiops," the text highlights.

Furthermore, it emphasizes that this breeding area was one of the candidates for protection in the document 'Mediterranean 30x30: Marine Agreement among environmental organizations for the protection of 30% of the Mediterranean by 2030,' which 15 organizations presented on March 6, 2024, to the then-minister, Teresa Ribera.

The initiative focuses on how the Government has committed to achieving the protection of 30% of the Spanish marine surface by 2030 and highlights that "various studies, including those of Tursiops, justify the interest of the sperm whale breeding area in the north of Menorca.