The Spanish government is creating a marine wildlife reserve in the Mediterranean Sea that will be the home of migrating whales and dolphins. Fossil fuel searching will be prohibited in the area.
The protected reserve will spread over nearly 18,000 square miles. As the government announced, the area “is of great ecological value and represents a migration path of vital importance for cetaceans in the Western Mediterranean.”
Spain’s minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, says that “this is the end of new prospecting or any type of extraction of fossil fuels” in the protected area.
Spain hopes to protect species like Fin whales, pilot whales, sperm whales, striped dolphins, and more.