Sperm whales, pilot whales, orcas and dolphins are all at risk of being killed in collisions with freighters using the proposed route between Tarifa, on the southwestern tip of Spain and a new port in Tangier on Morocco's northern coast.
Greenpeace has called on the Spanish government to rethink the creation of the new route.
"There is an exclusion zone that is ignored already and now they are going to create a new route that slices it in two," Pilar Marcos, head of Greenpeace Spain's coastal campaign, told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The Merchant Marine department of Spain's Public Works ministry has admitted that it "does not consider the said route to be necessary" but cannot prohibit its use.
Instead it will urge freighters to reduce their speed during the crossing to 13 knots and post lookouts on deck to "avoid collisions with cetaceans".
Spain's Center for Conservation, Information & Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE) has said there have already been four documented collisions in the waters at the mouth of the Mediterranean.
"In 2002 we saw one close up. A freighter passed by our side and ran into a sperm whale, which was left expelling jets of blood," said Renaud de Stephanis, president of CIRCE.
"The new route could cause a significant increase in the number of collisions between fast ferries and these species," he said.
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