Creation of a natural national marine reserve in Cap d'Agde

For over 10 years, the city of Agde, through its marine environment department, has been managing the 6200-hectare Marine Protected Area of the Agde coast, which has been awarded the Natura 2000 label "Posidonies du Cap d'Agde" in the French Mediterranean. It includes a 310-hectare integral reserve set up for 6 years with small-scale fishermen and other stakeholders. Today, the city of Agde wishes to upgrade the Natura 2000 status of this MPA to that of a National Marine Nature Reserve. This approach has been validated by a steering committee in 2023.
We are actively involved in scientific monitoring, protection and sustainable management actions (ecological moorings, etc.), ecological restoration (artificial reefs, reintroduction of marine species), marine environment education and awareness-raising for the general public and schoolchildren, and communication (social networks, mobile application, etc.). All this is done with a view to local management, in consultation with the environmental and maritime authorities and as close as possible to local stakeholders.
The actions are led by a dedicated team of 9 people including marine biologists and professional divers based at the Maison de la Mer, our floating headquater in the port of Cap d'Agde.
The creation of a national marine reserve will make it possible to work on themes complementary to Natura 2000 (e.g. sustainable fishing, fish nurseries), to ensure the long-term future of the integral reserve, or even to extend it, to have means of control at sea with personnel authorized to intervene, and to have sustainable annual funding.
The heart of this project is above all to build it in close consultation with stakeholders and authorities: Thus, in the first phase, using a structured approach (reserve and integral zone perimeters, possible regulations, governance...) and a detailed questionnaire, we decided to meet individually with each professional fisherman, each amateur or professional diving club, each recreational fishing and motorized or non-motorized yachting association, all the water sports rental companies, the pleasure boats, the manager of the ports of Agde... In the 2nd phase, scenarios were drawn up and shared with the members of the MPA steering committee, then discussed in collective workshops with the user groups to produce a final scenario.
These 2 phases are supposed to be finished at the end of july 2024.
Validated by the steering committee, the project will then go through the administrative process with the maritime and environmental authorities, ending in a national decree creating the National Marine Nature Reserve.
This project is the only one currently underway in France to create a new national marine nature reserve.