Discover the exceptional biodiversity of Port-Cros National Park!
Port-Cros National Park is bursting with exceptional biodiversity! It’s Europe’s largest marine park, with 500 species of algae and 180 species of fish. Its main aim is to protect the natural marine and terrestrial heritage by preserving species and their natural habitats. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced diver, you’ll love the park!
It’s hard to sum it all up in a single article… For a first discovery, here’s our selection of marine flora and fauna in Port Cros National Park.
The Brown Grouper
Our iconic local mascot is the Brown Grouper! With its pouty lips and questioning gaze, the Brown Grouper is sure to amaze you! Nestled in the rocks of the Parc National de Port-Cros (Hyères, Var), it’s shy by nature and loves to hide. Nevertheless, on occasion, it will venture out to rub shoulders with divers! If you try your hand at diving, there’s a good chance you’ll come across it.
Posidonia
The Port-Cros National Park offers a second local speciality: posidonia. The seagrass bed it forms is an internationally protected ecosystem. It extends to a depth of around forty meters. Like all other flowering marine plants, posidonia has been protected by national decree since 1988. Posidonia is a true source of coastal biodiversity. It helps conserve coastal sandy areas.
The coralligenous
The third special feature of Port-Cros National Park is the coralligenous. This is an underwater ecosystem characterized by anabundance of calcareous algae. In this nature reserve, coralligenous grows on rocks at depths of around twenty meters. In the Mediterranean, although green algae can be found here, the main ” constructor” species are red algae.
There are also ” eroding” species: they consume coralligenous (starfish, sea urchins, etc.), or dig galleries in it (sponges, molluscs, crustaceans, etc.).
Endangered species
For over 30 years, the Port Cros National Park has been working to protect the local fauna and flora: regulating overfishing (a moratorium has protected grouper since 1999!), taking action against pollution, raising awareness of boat anchoring…. Their various actions now enable all divers to admire the preserved seabed.
So we’ve managed to seduce you?
Now all you have to do is book your stay at one of our campsites in Hyères and contact our diving school partner Divin’Giens, so that you too can observe the wonders of our seabed!