Mallorca · Spain · Wall
Cap de Catalunya
Drop-off to 40 m with boulders and swim-throughs on an exposed cape
Photo: Antoni Sureda · CC BY-SA 3.0
A vertical wall on an exposed cape in the north of Mallorca, dropping into blue water to 40 m with massive boulders on the seabed and swim-throughs between them. It is a boat dive that the operators rate advanced, and like its neighbours on the cape it is a pelagic site: barracuda schools, hunting amberjack and big grouper along the face.
Where it is and how deep
39.9608° N, 3.1802° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
Cap de Catalunya is one of the cape's exposed wall dives, and it follows the same pattern as the others: the boat puts you on the rock, you descend the vertical face and the drop-off falls away beneath you into blue water. Massive boulders lie on the seabed at the base of the wall, with the bottom at 40 m, and there are swim-throughs among them for divers with the gas and the certification to use them. The plan sets the depth; the wall does not.
This is a fish site as much as a rock site. Huge schools of barracuda stack up off the wall, amberjack come through hunting in the blue, and the rock holds massive grouper, large moray eels and big octopus. Work along the face at your chosen depth with the wall on one side, then come back up it in stages, using the boulders and the rock for reference on the stops rather than hanging in open water.
Marine life and season
- Barracuda
- Trevally & jacks
- Groupers
- Octopus & cuttlefish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Mallorca: May to October is the season, with boats out daily; the Alcúdia centre dives all year. Water peaks at 26°C in August and falls to 14–15°C in February and March; winter is wet and windy.
Know before you go
- Exposed position and a drop-off to 40 m: Scuba Mallorca lists it for experienced divers only; agree a maximum depth before the dive and watch the gauge.
Photos from Cap de Catalunya
WIS456789 · Public domain
Questions divers ask
How deep is Cap de Catalunya?+
Scuba Mallorca lists a maximum of 40 m and rates the site advanced, for experienced divers; the wall drops off into blue water with boulders at the base.
Sources
- Cap de Catalunya — Scubago
- The Dives — Scuba Mallorca
Photo credits
- Rocky headland of Cap de Catalunya dropping into the sea, seen from above by Antoni Sureda, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Cap de Catalunya's ridgeline seen across the water from neighbouring Cap de Formentor by WIS456789, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Mallorca
Wreck
The Ghost Ship: an intact 20 m motor-sailboat on sand at 38 m
Vertical walls to 50 m with barracuda schools and hunting amberjack
Cave & cavern
Surface inside a stalactite-hung air chamber reached through a gallery
Cave & cavern
Narrow swim-throughs and a small air pocket inside the rock, 18 m max
Cave & cavern
Vertical chimneys with sunbeams in a 12 m shore-entry cavern
A long arch descending the wall next to the Formentor islet
An arch and a cave with barracuda schools, over sand and posidonia
Seahorses, cuttlefish and rays in the sand and posidonia at 12 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Two dives in one: an easier south side to 35 m, a deep north side past 40 m
A south-facing canyon to 35 m with an old anchor at its base
The park's best-known walls, and a cave with an air pocket
The area's big fish: barracuda and amberjack schools off a wall from 10 to 40 m