NATURE

The Ons Island also has other natural protection systems, since it belongs to the European Natura 2000 Network, to the OSPAR 2008 Agreement. It is a Special Protection Area for Birds, is a Site of Community Importance and has the Blue Flag on the Melide Beach.

Unlike the Cíes Islands, the main Ons Island is regularly inhabited throughout the year. It is a fishing village with great charm and with great island peculiarities. It is a unique place where time stops to contemplate this magnificent jewel of nature.

In the Ons cliffs several bands of vegetation are distinguished according to their proximity to the sea. In the lower areas, sea fennel and armenia abound and, in more humid sectors, sea mayweed.

Currently, there is little indigenous flora left on the island, such as rebollos and cork oaks. The mythical camarina grass is now extinct on the island.

The biodiversity that characterizes this marine environment is a consequence of its particular oceanographic conditions and the multiple habitats found in it, which create ideal conditions for the settlement and development of a wide variety of communities representative of the Galician Atlantic seabed.

The outcrop of the cold water currents of the sea, off the coast of the Rías Baixas, make its waters very rich in nutrients and oxygen, providing the main characteristics of the biological richness of the environment.

The variety and richness of the Ons seabed implies a great diversity and abundance of fish and shellfish, the main protagonists of the island’s gastronomy.

The most abundant marine mammal in the waters of the Ons Island is the common dolphin. The sightings of Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and sperm whales also being relatively frequent. It is also not uncommon to see some fin whales and, to a lesser extent, other cetaceans.

Sometimes specimens of leatherback and loggerhead turtles come to its waters, but these sightings are increasingly rare.