BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide
Pelagos Sanctuary: The Rules to Follow When You Encounter Cetaceans in the Mediterranean
Between Toulon, Nice, Corsica, Sardinia and Liguria: the Pelagos Sanctuary protects fin whales and dolphins. Speed, distance, viewing time: the full rundown.
If your rental itinerary runs between the Côte d'Azur, Corsica, Sardinia and Liguria, you are sailing through the Pelagos Sanctuary — 87,500 km² of protected waters created in 1999 under an agreement between France, Italy and Monaco to preserve one of the Mediterranean's densest cetacean populations: fin whales, sperm whales, striped and common dolphins, pilot whales.
Why a set of rules exists
Maritime traffic, recreational boats included, is one of the leading causes of fin whale mortality in the Mediterranean through collisions. Work by Panigada and colleagues, mapping collision risk along the main ferry routes through the Pelagos Sanctuary, shows the area accounts for a disproportionate share of the fatal collisions recorded across the whole Mediterranean basin (see the work on Google Scholar). Careless recreational boating adds to a problem already well documented at the scale of commercial shipping.
The code of good conduct, in practice
- Within 300 metres of a spotted cetacean: slow speed, a steady course, no sudden change of heading;
- No approach closer than 100 metres, no exceptions;
- Only one boat allowed in the 300-metre zone at a time — wait your turn;
- Viewing capped at 30 minutes, cut to 15 if other boats are waiting;
- Always approach on a track running parallel to the animal's, never head-on or from behind;
- Absolutely no touching, feeding or swimming with a cetacean.
What a careless renter risks
Under a French ministerial order dated 1 July 2011, intentional disturbance of marine mammals is a punishable offence in French territorial waters. Beyond the risk of a penalty, an approach that is too fast or too close can also cause a blind collision: a fin whale or sperm whale at the surface is far harder to spot than you would think, especially in a formed sea. The same caution applies here as in the Mediterranean's marine protected areas more broadly.
If you come across dolphins
Bottlenose and striped dolphins sometimes come to play at the bow of a moving boat of their own accord: in that specific case, there is no need to manoeuvre — just hold your course and speed steady and let them approach — a case covered in detail in our guide to watching dolphins and turtles, to which our guide to the orcas of the Strait of Gibraltar adds another sensitive area.
Where these rules apply
The sanctuary covers most of the cruising routes between Nice, Saint-Tropez, Calvi and Corsica generally — keep the code of conduct in mind as soon as you leave the coastal strip.
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