El Toro Underwater Camera: Watch Calvià's Marine Reserve Live, Day and Night

The El Toro underwater camera streams live pictures from five metres below the surface at the islet of El Toro, inside the Illes del Ponent marine reserve off Calvià. Anyone can watch it free, 24 hours a day, on the Calvià council website.

▶ WATCH THE EL TORO CAMERA LIVE

It is one of those small local projects that is easy to miss and hard to stop watching once you find it. For residents of Santa Ponsa, El Toro and Port Adriano, it is a window onto the water we look at every day, and a reminder of how much of our coastline is now protected. Here is what the camera shows, who runs it, and what the reserve around it is there to protect.

What the Camera Shows

The camera sits at a depth of five metres on the shallow rocky platform of El Toro, the small island just off the headland beyond Port Adriano. According to the council, it lets viewers follow marine life on the shallow platform of the reserve throughout the day. You see light shifting across the rocks, fish passing in and out of view and the movement of the water itself, without a boat, a mask or a dive certificate.

The feed is published on the council's seabed observatory page, in the Beaches and Coastline section of calvia.com. The signal is also shown on the 23 information screens the council has placed around the municipality, and the web viewer includes an option to capture high-quality still images.

The underwater feed joins other real-time information the council already publishes, including live occupancy figures for the beaches of Peguera, Palmanova, Magaluf and Santa Ponsa. In summer that is a useful tool for deciding where to swim; in autumn and winter the seabed camera is the more interesting of the two.

Who Is Behind It

The camera is the result of an agreement between the Ajuntament de Calvià and IB3, the Balearic public broadcaster. It forms part of the outreach work for Arxipèlag Blau, a project by IB3 Televisió and the Fundación Marilles dedicated to the marine biodiversity of the Balearic Islands. The telecoms company IB-RED installed the equipment and is responsible for its technical maintenance.

The Fundación Marilles works on the protection of the Balearic sea, and IB3's involvement means the images also feed into broadcast production. For Calvià, the camera is a simple way of showing residents and visitors what the reserve looks like below the surface, which is usually the hardest part of any conservation story to tell.

The Illes del Ponent Marine Reserve

The Balearic government created the original Ponent marine reserve in 2004. In 2022 it declared the marine reserve of the islands of El Toro and the Malgrats, considerably widening the protected area around the two earlier reserves. Then, by Decree 26/2025 of 4 July, published in the BOIB on 5 July 2025, it established the current Marine Reserve of the Illes del Ponent de Mallorca, El Toro, les Malgrats and el Sec.

The reserve now covers about 2,300 hectares along the Calvià coast, of which 240 hectares are high-protection zones, with a further 93 hectares set aside as special fishing zones. For the first time it includes l'Illa del Sec and its adjacent reef, something Calvià had asked for over many years.

There are three high-protection zones: one around El Toro, one around the Malgrats and a new one around l'Illa del Sec. The draft decree set out six specific dive points around El Toro and four around the Malgrats. The aim is to let fish populations recover inside the reserve, which supports artisanal fishing in the southwest of the Bay of Palma and activities based on watching marine life, such as recreational diving.

The Malgrats are the small islands facing the bay of Santa Ponsa, clearly visible from the beach and the promenade. El Toro lies a little further south, off the village of the same name. Between them they frame one of the most visited stretches of coast in Calvià, and both are now inside the same protected area.

Diving at El Toro

El Toro has long been one of the best-known dive sites in Mallorca, and the reserve rules regulate scuba diving there through a specific annex of the 2025 decree. On 28 August 2026 the Balearic government approved a further decree that amends that annex, with the stated aim of simplifying the procedures for recreational dives at El Toro.

The same decree updates the regional rules on recreational diving more broadly, placing more weight on responsible declarations and adapting them to the state's Royal Decree 550/2020. If you dive with one of the local centres, they handle the paperwork; if you are planning to dive independently, check the current conditions for the reserve before you go.

For those who prefer to stay dry, the live camera now offers a view of the same water from the sofa. It is a good way to introduce children to what lives just off the beach before taking them snorkelling in summer.

Living Near the Reserve

For anyone who lives in or is considering southwest Mallorca, the reserve is part of the area's appeal. The coast between Santa Ponsa, El Toro and Port Adriano is home to protected water, clear bays and a marina, all within a short drive of Palma. Our guide to El Toro, the clifftop village behind Port Adriano, describes the village itself, and our article on Cabrera National Park covers the island's best-known marine park.

Protection of this kind tends to be long-term. The 2025 decree replaced earlier rules rather than adding a temporary layer, and the limits it sets apply year-round. For homeowners along this stretch of coast, that offers a clear picture of how the waters in front of their homes are managed.

How to Watch

Tap the button below on a phone, tablet or computer; there is nothing to install and no registration, and the stream runs around the clock. If you are out in Santa Ponsa, Magaluf or Peguera, look for one of the council's information screens, which show the same feed.

▶ OPEN THE LIVE UNDERWATER CAMERA

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