Cap de Creus · Spain · Seamount · Reef
Bau de la Punta del Molí
Seamount rock from 5 m to past 40 m, gorgonians throughout
Area photo: Alan Mattingly · CC0
A seamount inside the park's partial protection zone, rising to 5 m and dropping past 40 m, which gives a team room to choose an easy dive or a deep one on the same rock. Red and white gorgonians cover the flanks, anthias swarm over them, and the topography and species count are why the catalogue rates it among the best dives on Cap de Creus.
Where it is and how deep
42.3400° N, 3.2686° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The seamount's range is the point of it. The rock comes up to 5 m and falls away to over 40 m, so the same dive can be run shallow and long or short and deep, and a group with mixed experience can share a site without anyone diving someone else's profile. It lies within the park's partial protection zone.
Working down the flank, red and white gorgonians take over the harder faces and schools of anthias hang in clouds off them, with wrasses picking over the rock underneath. Groupers and dentex hold at the structure's edges, and tuna and sunfish come past out in the blue, so the dive is worth spending part of in open water rather than nose-down. The imposing topography and the spread of species across every layer are what earn the site its reputation here.
Marine life and season
- Groupers
- Reef fish swarms
- Tuna
- Mola mola
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Cap de Creus: Jun–Sep is warmest and calmest; the Tramuntana blows hardest in winter and spring and regularly cancels boats for days at a time.
Sources
- Bau de la Punta del Molí — Scubago (SSI MyDiveGuide) — Scubago / SSI
More dive sites in Cap de Creus
Canyons, rifts and drop-offs between 10 and 30 m
Wall
Fast drop-off onto a gorgonian platform at 30 m
Seamount
The park's only offshore seamount, 8 m to 60 m
Gorgonian walls in the lee of the tramuntana
Pinnacle
Maze-like rock stacks full of red sea fans to 40 m
Reef
A giant anchor and its chain links lying at 21 m
Stepped platforms, a chimney-tunnel and gorgonian walls
Sand, coralligenous and rock between 12 and 30 m
Similar dives elsewhere
A submerged mountain from 55 m to 3 m, four hulls on its flanks
A rock needle to 3 m, with a conger cave at 22 m on its east side
A shoal topping out at 10 m with a 30 m drop and hard backlight
Seamount
Secca del Capo
Filicudi & Salina · Italy
Large groupers living in a rockfall of boulders on an open-sea shoal