I have always been in love with the sea. My first memories are of salt, water, and sand. The sea is my home, my work, my refuge, my hope; it is the place where I go to find myself. People often ask why I’ve dedicated my life to protecting it. My response is simple: when you witness something you love being harmed, you have to become part of the solution. That’s why we are here off Granada, working to protect the sea, and more specifically the Punta de la Mona Special Area of Conservation, an area of high ecological value which was protected in 2015, following years of destruction to preserve the precious marine habitats and special abundance of cold-water corals that can be found in the Mediterranean region.

The beginning of my story with Punta de la Mona started more than ten years ago. Like anyone lucky enough to experience its abundance of life, I was at once captivated by this paradise, filled with iconic candelabrum corals.

One afternoon, I met Nacho, a diver who has known this area for decades. He told me how, it was thanks to his father, that he first discovered the coral fields of Punta de la Mona: “Until 1969, my father had several 10-litre mono bottles for diving. The maximum depth to which he could descend did not exceed 20 metres. In the summer of 1972, he acquired a compressor and several bi-bottles which he was able to fill with more bars. A new world began: more diving time and greater depth. He was able to start exploring the outside of Cueva del Jarro at 30 metres and the plain of Piedra Llana at 25 metres. One of his dives, on November 1st, in the clearest water he had ever seen, he saw the entire coral field on the west side of Punta de la Mona.”

Nacho remembered it was in 1975 that he became a certified diver himself. “One day, my father took me to the coral field. It was from that point my love affair with Punta de la Mona began.” He continued: “We anchored the boat above 40 metres, went down, and explored what felt like our private aquarium. The orange colour of the coral against the dark background was breathtaking, and we were the only ones who had access to this garden.”

The underwater landscape of this 120-hectare Special Area of Conservation is characterised by reefs as well as rocky and sandy seabeds, filled with an abundance of endangered species such as the orange tree coral and the rare candelabrum coral, alongside the ferruginous limpet and the violescent sea-whip, amongst others.

Nacho also shared the darker side of this story. In the 1970s, corals were often extracted from the area, some towering over 80cm. “I remember participating in the extraction of two of them. One of them was more than 80cm high, and we gave it to the owner of the local Hotel Salobreña. It remained on display in the entrance hall for many years,” Nacho said. “The extraction mechanism consisted of cutting the base with a mallet and chisel, attaching them to a balloon, and making them rise to the surface. We put the smaller corals (around 50cm in diameter), in bags, and we took them up ourselves without the help of a balloon. In those days, we would call these activities extraction and collection. Now it would be called looting and pillaging.”