Anchoring Rules in the Mediterranean

Where you may and may not drop an anchor in 2026 — France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia, and why the fines you have read about are almost certainly French.

Reviewed by Adrian Sneed, Charter Broker at Sneed Charters — a family brokerage arranging crewed yacht charters in the Mediterranean since 1992.

The picture at a glance

France — the only country actively prosecuting

The framework is prefectoral decree 123/2019 of 3 June 2019, which prohibits anchoring in an area corresponding to a protected marine plant habitat where doing so is liable to damage it. Note the wording: it is a habitat-based prohibition, not a blanket posidonia ban, and it is implemented through local decrees department by department rather than one national map.

There is no single French size threshold. The regime is described as applying to vessels of 20 or 24 metres and above depending on the decree, and real cases confirm both are in use — one 2026 judgment concerned a zone barred to vessels over 20 metres, another a zone restricted to vessels under 20 metres. Anyone quoting “24 metres” as the French rule is oversimplifying.

The €150,000 maximum is real but has two possible legal bases: Article L5242-2 of the transport code (one year’s imprisonment, €150,000, for a captain disregarding maritime prefect orders) and Article L415-3 of the environment code (three years, €150,000, for damaging a protected species’ habitat). Third-party guides routinely merge them into a single “€150,000 and three years and a navigation ban”. Fines actually imposed have run €5,000 to €20,000.

What the courts have awarded

Ecological-damage sums are not fines paid to the state. They go to a restoration body — the Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse water agency in the 2024 cases, the Port-Cros and Calanques national parks in the 2026 ones.

The development nobody has caught up with

On 1 July 2026 the Cour d’appel d’Aix-en-Provence annulled an ecological-damage award altogether, rejecting the €86,676-per-hectare-per-year valuation method on evidential grounds — no underwater survey, no photographs, no records proving damage from the specific anchorings. More than €93,000 was eliminated; only the mooring-violation fines survived.

So the French position in September 2026 is genuinely unsettled. First-instance courts were still awarding ecological damages in May 2026; the appeal court rejected the valuation method in July. What is not in doubt is the illegality of anchoring in a protected zone, or the fines for it — the contested question is how damages are quantified on top. Treat any page presenting the 2024 precedent as settled law, including our own earlier writing on it, as out of date.

Spain — a national ban, in force since April

Royal Decree 191/2026 of 11 March 2026 was published in the official gazette on 13 March and entered into force on 2 April 2026, twenty days later, with no transitional period. Article 5.1 imposes a general prohibition on anchoring vessels over seagrass meadows; Article 5.2 permits only authorised low-impact mooring systems.

It covers both Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa, and applies across the Spanish Mediterranean marine environment. In protected areas it sets a floor, not a ceiling — autonomous communities may be stricter, and the Balearics already are under their own 2018 decree.

Exceptions are narrow: force majeure and maritime safety, authorised scientific or biodiversity work, archaeological intervention, and repair of existing installations.

One point worth being precise about: the decree itself sets no euro figures. Infringements are handled under the sanctions regime of the 2007 natural heritage and biodiversity act. Anyone quoting a specific fine “under Royal Decree 191/2026” is extrapolating.

On enforcement, the Balearic data is instructive. In Ibiza, vessels required to move off protected seagrass doubled from 1,719 in 2024 to 3,468 in 2025. Across Ibiza and Formentera 4,813 vessels were detected anchored on protected meadows in 2025, and 18 infractions were issued — about one fine per 270 boats. The rules are being monitored far more than they are being penalised, which is a poor reason to rely on not being caught.

In practice a Balearics itinerary is now planned around authorised buoy fields rather than around the prettiest bay on the chart.

Italy — a principle without a penalty

Law 70 of 7 May 2026 states that anchoring must not damage the marine and coastal environment or destroy, deteriorate, alter or fragment sensitive or protected marine habitats, and it names Posidonia oceanica expressly.

It attaches no penalties, no fines and no implementing decree. It is a statement of principle.

So there is no Italian national anchoring fine for seagrass damage. If you have read about a yacht fined tens of thousands of euros for anchoring on posidonia in Italy, the case was almost certainly French. This misattribution is close to universal in the charter press and it matters, because it obscures what does constrain you in Italy: the marine protected areas, which set their own rules and enforce them.

At Portofino, anchoring and hauling are prohibited outright in Zones A and B. In Zone C anchoring is allowed for small craft but excludes Paraggi bay, the swimming zones, the mooring-field areas, and — explicitly to protect posidonia — the stretch between Punta Cannette and Tonnarella. Mooring inside the area is at pre-assigned buoys only, with fees by length and eco-compatibility. The practical result for a charter yacht of any size is that you lie at Santa Margherita Ligure and visit Portofino by tender.

Greece and Croatia — zoning, not seagrass law

Greece has no national anchoring ban over posidonia. Protection works indirectly, through biodiversity law and mooring-installation permitting, and the prohibitions that do exist target aquaculture and trawling rather than anchoring. In September 2025 bottom trawling was banned throughout the Alonnisos and Northern Sporades national marine park. A South Aegean marine park covering the southern Cyclades has been signed but was still before the Council of State in July 2026 — we are not going to publish its restrictions until the text is public.

Croatia likewise has no seagrass-specific anchoring rule. Posidonia is a strictly protected habitat type under the nature protection act, but the practical constraint is national park zoning. In the Kornati, anchoring and overnighting are permitted only in eighteen named bays — Stiniva, Statival, Lupeška, Lučica, Vruje, Opat, Lavsa, Piškera and the rest — and four strictly protected zones are closed to entry entirely. Entry is ticketed by vessel length, and the 2026 tariff rises steeply: €95 a day for a 17-metre yacht in high season, €320 for a 34-metre, €1,035 for a 74-metre.

Where buoy fields have replaced anchoring

The clearest published example is the mooring zone at Bagaud in the Port-Cros national park in France. Anchoring is prohibited year-round throughout the zone. There are 68 buoys: 60 for vessels up to 15 metres, five for 15 to 30 metres, three reserved for residents, with a 30-metre maximum. The season runs 15 April to 15 October. Daytime use between 08:00 and 18:00 is free; overnight is charged at €0.65 per square metre of length by beam for the first two nights and double thereafter, capped at five consecutive nights, booked through a dedicated portal.

That model — free anchoring replaced by a booked, priced, size-capped buoy — is the direction of travel across the western Mediterranean, and it is why “we will find a bay when we get there” is no longer a plan in French or Spanish waters.

The underlying law

All of this sits on two instruments. Posidonia beds are Annex I habitat type 1120 under the EU Habitats Directive and are flagged as a priority habitat, which triggers the strictest protection regime available. And Posidonia oceanica is listed in Annex II of the Barcelona Convention’s protocol on specially protected areas and biological diversity, as an endangered or threatened species.

We found no EU infringement action taken specifically over anchoring, so the enforcement is national.

Frequently asked questions

See also our Mediterranean yacht charter guide and our Italy yacht charter guide, which covers the Italian marine parks in more detail.