Report | June 30, 2021

Protecting Cabliers: Exceptional Mediterranean coral reefs

The Cabliers Coral Mound Province is located in the Southern Alboran Sea (GSA 3 and 4 – see Figure 1). It comprises several elongated ridge-like mounds mainly composed of cold-water corals (CWC). The seamount here, a volcanic outcrop that extends for 25 km with depths ranging from 250-710 m, currently hosts one of the densest and largest CWC reefs in the Mediterranean Sea and the only known growing CWC reefs in the entire Mediterranean basin.

The area is an exceptional semi-pristine oasis in the deep sea according to scientific evidence which shows its coral richness, along with the fact that Cabliers is relatively undisturbed by human activity. Its reefs are mainly composed of the framework-building stony corals Desmophyllum pertusum (=Lophelia pertusa) and Madrepora oculata, together with other threatened species that include dense aggregations of deep-sea gorgonians, black corals, and glass sponges. Various commercial species are found in the reef system, including blackspot seabream (Pagellus bogaraveo), European conger (Conger conger), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), greater forkbeard (Phycis blennoides), red scorpionfish (Scorpaena scrofa), pink spiny lobster (Palinurus mauritanicus), and Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus). Observations of small-spotted catshark egg cases, cuttlefish eggs, juvenile blackbelly rosefish, and schools of blackspot seabream indicate the potential importance of the Cabliers reefs for species’ life cycles.

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