Reserve Naturelle Nationale: the five protected sectors

OBSERVATION ONLY BY LAW. The reserve prohibits FEEDING animals, TOUCHING protected species (turtles, corals, sea urchins), collecting coral, plants, shellfish or crustaceans, and even WEARING GLOVES on dives so nothing can be picked up. Shark fishing banned 1 May-31 Aug, with nurse, lemon, oceanic whitetip, all hammerheads and whale shark protected year-round; touching, chasing or feeding a juvenile shark is forbidden.

The 1,200-hectare marine reserve, created 1996, managed by the Agence Territoriale de l'Environnement, split into simple- and enhanced-protection zones plus the Grand Cul-de-Sac lagoon zone, with 23 designated dive sites marked by red square pictograms. Anchoring banned outside Colombier and Fourchue; fixed mooring buoys only, ONE BOAT PER BUOY, max 2h30 on a dive buoy; 5-knot speed limit; jet skis, seabobs, electric surfboards and towed watersports BANNED; enhanced-protection zones ban fishing, anchoring and scuba entirely. Monitoring since 2002 shows measurably higher fish abundance and biomass inside the reserve.