A survey of-selected echinoderm larvae and postlarvae was conducted during Almofront-1 cruise in the eastern Alboran Sea (Mediterranean Sea). In the study zone, surface waters from the Atlantic current enter via Gibraltar forming a hydrologically complex area with associated eddies and gyres. The distribution pattern of echinoderm larvae is described and related to specific biological and physical frontal processes responsible for larval retention or dispersal. In the part of Alboran Sea, influenced by Mediterranean waters, echinoderm larvae and postlarvae were quite scarce in comparison to the stations localised in the Atlantic jet and sites under influence of Atlantic waters where species richness and larval abundance were higher. The Anticyclonic gyre which originates in the Atlantic current could act as a hydrodynamic trap maintaining larvae near the African coast where recruitment is possible.