Get to know the best island in the Mediterranean
Where is it?
Tabarca Island is located 8km or 3 nautical miles off the coast of Santa Pola (Alicante). Very close to our dive center, it took us only about 20 minutes to get there in our boat.
What can we see?
The marine reserve has an immense biodiversity where we usually see an abundance of giant groupers, schools of thousands of barracudas, rays, rays, manta rays, lobsters, cicadas, octopuses, starfish, cuttlefish, sponges, conger eels, moray eels and plenty of soft coral. It is a paradise on earth.
What are the requirements?
To dive in Tabarca it is necessary to bring:
DNI or Passport
Diving certificate
Diving insurance in force
What dive sites do we have?
Tabarca is a marine reserve where you are not allowed to dive without certification, but we have dive sites that are suitable for all levels. Fortunately, in the marine reserve there are usually no currents and therefore the dives are accessible to all divers.
The Tabarca marine reserve is divided into two zones: the inner reserve, composed of five dive sites, and the outer reserve, formed by two dive sites that are further away from the coast of the island.
To dive in both areas it is necessary to have a permit which many dive centers in Alicante do not have. We are one of the lucky ones who can enjoy this underwater wonder.
The dive sites in the inland reserve are:
- Escull Negre.
- Escull Roig.
- Artificial Reefs.
- Galera and Zona Libre.
In the outer reserve you can find:
La Nao (Los Arcos) and La Llosa (Merolandia).
Outside the marine reserve we also have several dive sites:
Wreck 19, Wreck 30, Sting-ray point and Cape Santa Pola
Escull Negre
Difficulty level – LOW (Suitable for any qualification from Open Water upwards)
It is called Escull negre for “Escollo negro”, black rock that emerges on the south side of Tabarca and is one of the best points of the interior reserve.
It is characterized for being one of the most biodiverse points of the island, where with only 13 meters of maximum depth you will be able to see everything. Shoals of thousands of barracudas, groupers, rays, rays, covinas, salps, octopus, conger eels, nudibranchs, royal bream and much more.
It is a shallow dive where we will be practically all the time at a depth of 7 or 8 meters, so you will not have any air consumption problems.
Escull Roig
Difficulty – LOW (Suitable for any qualification from Open water)
It is called Escull Roig because the dive is around a rock that emerges red on the south face of Tabarca Island.
We will be able to see nudibranchs, scorpion fish, starfish, large meadows of Posidonia oceanica, moray eels and much more variety.
It is a very easy dive in which you will be almost all the time between 5 and 7 meters deep, so your air consumption will not be a problem.
La Galera
Difficulty level – LOW (Suitable for any qualification from Open Water upwards)
It is an islet located very close to the island of Tabarca and has a very interesting particularity and is its orography *(part of the physical geography that deals with the description of the mountains). In addition to a very significant relief, where we can find some rock corridors and a cave.
It is very shallow and its visibility is usually excellent. It is one of the best dive sites to see giant manta rays.
We can see all kinds of fish, but at this particular point it is quite unpredictable as sometimes we see marine life that is not seen anywhere else in the Tabarca marine reserve.
Artificial Reefs
Difficulty – MEDIUM (Suitable for any qualification from Advanced Open water)
This dive site in Tabarca is formed by concrete blocks that were purposely submerged years ago to prevent trawlers from damaging the beautiful seabed surrounding the island of Tabarca.
The dive site “Arrecifes artificiales”, is formed by hollow, cube-shaped structures, resting on the bed of a sandy area located at 24 meters deep. It is so called because over the years a reef has been created, a place of protection and a refuge for countless species and providing us with a splendid diving spot.
In the huge buckets we can see: scorpion fish or scorpion fish, groupers of more than 40kg, schools of countless salps, mojarras and much more. In addition, near the cubes there are the remains of several fishing boats where moray eels, conger eels and many more species live.
La Nao
Difficulty – LOW (Suitable for any qualification from Open water)
Undoubtedly, La Nao is one of the best dives in the Mediterranean Sea. It is a place where hundreds of underwater photographers come every year to capture incredible images of its marine flora and fauna.
What makes it so relevant for photography are its light entrances through tunnels and arches filled with all kinds of fish and its shallow depth (maximum depth 10m), which helps that light reach everywhere.
It is a dive in which we will follow some rock profiles until we reach some arches where a large amount of marine life is concentrated and we can see hundreds of fish of all kinds whose maximum depth is 10 meters.
We will be able to see giant groupers, sea cicadas, bream, salps, cuttlefish, octopus, in the sandy areas there are sometimes manta rays and stingrays.
It is a dive that does not disappoint any type of diver and has a special charm because the fish that inhabit it do not see you as a threat and come very close to the divers, making us feel part of that ecosystem.
Tabarca Reef
Difficulty – LOW (Suitable for any qualification from Open water)
Tabarca Reef or Cemetery is, contrary to what its name suggests, a dive site where fish abound. It is so called because it is located on the north side of the island, in line with the cemetery.
Moreover, you will find an abundance of fish including large schools of barracudas and some Spanish dancers. It is a dive site located on the north side of Tabarca Island in line with the cemetery.
It is a fairly simple dive in which the maximum depth will be 15 meters. It is characterized by its interesting topography, formed by a row of rocks, one on top of the other creating passages and overhangs to explore. Surrounding the depths is a posidonia garden, a great place for a multitude of species to take refuge.
We can see Mediterranean reefs such as gorgonians, sponges and ascidians. It is also very likely to see rays, barracudas, some groupers and much more.
Wreck 19
Difficulty level – LOW (suitable for any certificate from Open water upwards)
This dive is very close to the Tabarca marine reserve. The maximum depth is 19 meters, normally we anchor at about 12 meters deep and descend through a kind of very cool rock canyon where you can see a huge cloud of bogas swimming in synchrony. Shortly after, we will find a sandy area where there is a sunken wooden fishing boat and in the hole of the propeller there is usually a conger eel. This point can be very surprising and you can not miss it.
We can see small groupers, rays, barracudas, Spanish dancers, conger eels, moray eels, octopus and much more.
La Llosa (Merolandia)
Difficulty – MEDIUM (suitable for any qualification from Advanced Open water)
Considered one of the best dive sites in Spain and in the whole Mediterranean Sea, it is a dive site that you cannot miss if you visit Alicante.
The depth of this dive is between 19 and 28 meters, and can be done in 2 ways depending on the level of the divers.
The shallower part of the dive, which would be 24 meters, consists of going around a rocky shallows or llosa and taking part in a spectacle of dozens of huge groupers (hence the name MEROLANDIA), pollock, false pollock, thousands of barracudas, some rays, very large moray eels, octopuses, anemones, etc. We would be decreasing the height until we stay at about 19 meters where we only have to look to the sides, delighting us with all the amount of life that surrounds us. The amazing thing about this place is how close we can get to the groupers without touching them and the incredible photos you can take here. Some of them are so used to us that they even pose in front of the camera.
In the deepest part of the dive which would be 28 meters what we will do is visit a series of rocks and tunnels where we are often surprised by different types of fish that are not so common to see such as sunfish and sea eagles.
Wreck 30
Difficulty – MEDIUM/HIGH (Suitable for any qualification from Advanced Open Water upwards)
They are the remains of 3 wooden ships sunk at a depth of 30 meters on a sandy beach.
This is the dive site where you are most likely to see sunfish, on some occasions we have seen more than 20 together. This is because it is a place where there are many maidens and they are in charge of cleaning all the particles and impurities that the sunfish have. Let’s say it is like their particular Spa. You can also see moray eels, a big conger eel and a lot more variety of fish.
It is a dive where there may be current so we may also see large life.
