Costa Brava Diving: The Illes Medes and Its Limits
by Yannick Schroth
Aug 15, 2026
5 min read
Photo: Enric, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Key takeaways
- The reserve is capped at 450 dives a day and takes roughly 60,000 a year inside one square kilometre. Book a summer dive in advance through an authorised centre.
- Most sites start at 10 to 15 m and the outer walls run past 50 m, so one boat trip can carry mixed experience. Several islets have caves and tunnels, which is overhead diving.
- A dive centre needs a Generalitat authorisation for the strictly protected zone, valid two calendar years under ORDRE TES/178/2018. Ask whether a centre holds the current one.
- The authorisation file is the real check: guide list, vessel and engine papers, and dive records for two years.
- None of the 5 Green Fins member has been assessed in person. All are Digital Members, so the tier tells you nothing beyond the fact of registering.
The sites, and how deep they run
The named dives around the islets are Salpatxot, El Medallot, Pedra de Déu, Pota del Llop, La Vaca, Dofí Nord and Dofí Sud, and Carall Bernat with the Tascons. Operators put most of them between 10 and 15 m at the top, running down past 50 m on the outer walls.
That spread is the useful part: the same islet carries a shallow dive for a fresh open-water certificate and a wall that wants decompression training, so a group of mixed experience can dive the same boat trip without anyone being dragged too deep or left in the shallows.
Caves and tunnels run through several of the islets, which is the other reason the site draws people. Overhead is overhead: it changes what training a dive asks for, and it is worth asking a centre which of its Medes dives go inside anything.
The cap, and what it means for booking
450 dives a day is the ceiling, and roughly 60,000 a year go in. Catalan reporting puts the fee divers pay per dive at around €350,000 a year to the Generalitat, which is another way of saying the same thing: this is a heavily used square kilometre with a queue management system attached.
For a visitor that has one practical consequence. Places are allocated to authorised centres rather than sold at the jetty, so a summer weekend is a booking made in advance through a centre that holds a licence, not a walk-up. Out of season the cap stops binding and the same sites are quiet.
Who is allowed to take you in
A dive centre needs an authorisation from the Generalitat de Catalunya to run scuba activities in the strictly protected zone of the Medes. It runs for two calendar years, applications open 1 to 30 November of even-numbered years, and the procedure itself carries no fee. The legal basis is ORDRE TES/178/2018, de 23 d'octubre.
What a centre has to file is the interesting part, because it is the check the register does not make: a description of its services, the list of its underwater guides, vessel registration and engine details, and its dive records for the current and previous year.
So on this coast the meaningful permission is a government authorisation, not a membership badge. Ask a centre whether it holds the Medes authorisation for the current two-year period. That is a question with a checkable answer.
Green Fins dive centers on the Costa Brava
The register, read on 2026-08-14, carried 5 members in Costa Brava, and none of the 5 has been assessed in person: every one is a Digital Member, which means registered and never visited. The tier column on the operator list is the same for all of them and carries no information.
That matters less here than it would elsewhere, because the authorisation above is a stiffer check than the register and it is public. Of the operator sites, 19 of the 21 responded. Training agencies named on the pages that did: PADI on 3 and SSI on 2. Not one of the 21 publishes which languages their instructors teach in.
FAQ: Costa Brava
How many divers are allowed in the Illes Medes each day?
450 dives a day is the published ceiling, with around 60,000 a year going into roughly one square kilometre. Places are allocated to authorised dive centres, so a summer dive is booked in advance rather than arranged at the jetty.
What are the best dive sites in the Illes Medes?
Salpatxot, El Medallot, Pedra de Deu, Pota del Llop, La Vaca, Dofi Nord, Dofi Sud and Carall Bernat with the Tascons. Most start around 10 to 15 m and the outer walls drop past 50 m; several islets carry caves and tunnels, which is overhead diving and needs the training to match.
Does a dive centre need a licence for the Illes Medes?
Yes. The Generalitat de Catalunya authorises centres for the strictly protected zone under ORDRE TES/178/2018. It runs two calendar years, applications open 1 to 30 November of even-numbered years, and the centre must file its guide list, vessel papers and two years of dive records.
Are Costa Brava dive operators independently checked?
Not by Green Fins: 5 Green Fins operators, 0 assessed in person, and every member here is a Digital Member, meaning registered with no in-person assessment. The check that does exist is the Catalan authorisation for the Medes, which is stiffer and public.
Writes NOMADREEF and compiles its operator directory. This guide is desk research, not a trip report, and says so at the top. About the author
Sources
- Generalitat de Catalunya, authorisation of diving centres for the strictly protected zone of the Illes Medes. Who must hold it, the two-calendar-year term, the application window of 1 to 30 November in even years, the documents required, and the legal basis ORDRE TES/178/2018, de 23 d’octubre. tramits.gencat.cat. Read 2026-09-08.
- El Punt Avui, on the daily immersion limit at the Illes Medes. The ceiling of 450 dives a day, around 60,000 immersions a year in one square kilometre, and the fee income to the Generalitat. elpuntavui.cat. Read 2026-09-08.
- Submarinisme Costa Brava, diving in the Medes Islands. The named sites, Salpatxot, El Medallot, Pedra de Déu, Pota del Llop, La Vaca, Dofí Nord and Sud, Carall Bernat with the Tascons, and depths from 10 to 15 m at the tops to well past 50 m. submarinismocostabrava.com. Read 2026-09-08.
- Green Fins member register, Reef-World Foundation with the UN Environment Programme, greenfins.net. Membership and assessment status for 5 of the 21 operators, read on 2026-08-14. The difference between the tiers is set out by Green Fins itself: certified against digital membership.
- Each operator's own website, opened between 2026-08-24 and 2026-08-26, for the training agencies they name.