Nave dei Cavoli

The shallow part of the site is a dense Posidonia meadow broken by boulders, and out of it stands the relief that names the dive: granite eroded in the open air into a profile like the bow of a ship. The setting is bright, and the rock is felted with Cystoseira algae grazed by salema, while red mullet, wrasse, comber and other small fish forage through it. Large colonies of the cushion coral Cladocora caespitosa sit on the rocks.

From the meadow the site degrades rapidly into a varied landscape of big boulders and fallen blocks, with numerous routes possible either in shallow water or down to 40 m. With depth, and in the less exposed ground, the algae give way to invertebrates: sponges, sea daisies, bryozoans, eunicella and paramuricea. Look closely at the fans for Alcyonium coralloides, a parasitic soft coral that sheets over dead gorgonian skeletons and sometimes smothers living ones.

Large groupers and sea bream turn up everywhere on the site, and dense shoals of brown meagre pack into the crevices, at times with a red grouper (Mycteroperca rubra) sheltering among them. With 40 m available and no certification level published for the point, the depth is a briefing decision: the meadow and the bow make a long, bright dive on their own, and the boulder ground below can be sampled early and left.