Corsica · France · Sand slope · Reef
Le Phare de la Chiappa
Sand bank, seagrass and rock under the Chiappa light
Area photo: Reustli · CC BY-SA 4.0
The dive at the Chiappa lighthouse lies at the foot of the light on a seabed catalogued from 6 m to 20 m, and it combines three kinds of ground in one profile: a white bank, a seagrass bed and a rocky bottom. That mix, rather than any single feature, is what the catalogue entry is built around.
Where it is and how deep
41.5940° N, 9.3736° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The site sits at the foot of the lighthouse on a seabed published as 6 m to 20 m, and it is really three kinds of ground stitched into one dive: a white bank, a seagrass bed and a rocky bottom. The transitions are the part worth diving slowly, because the edge between two habitats usually holds more than the middle of either one.
Run it as a loop rather than a line, so you cross all three instead of committing the whole tank to one. The 20 m floor leaves generous no-decompression time to spend on it, which means the limit is gas, and a slow lap that ends shallow gives you the safety stop without having to stage a separate ascent at the end.
Seagrass is the part worth slowing for and the part easiest to wreck: stay off it, hover rather than kneel, and fin above the sand bank instead of across it. This is a boat dive, and beyond the depth band and the three habitats nothing else is published for the site, so the briefing on the day covers the rest.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Off-season |
Season follows Corsica: Operators run Apr–Oct with July and August warmest; the Bouches de Bonifacio funnel wind and can close the crossing at short notice.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Chiappa lighthouse dive?+
The site lies at the foot of the lighthouse on a seabed catalogued from 6 m to 20 m. It combines a white bank, a seagrass bed and a rocky bottom, so the depth stays modest and the dive is spent moving between the three kinds of ground.
Sources
- Le phare de la Chiappa — Scubago
More dive sites in Corsica
Rock formations and faults on ground from 5 to 30 metres
Sand slope
A sandbar edge from 3 m to 15 m, used for courses
A 3 m to 15 m nursery plateau in an island reserve
Stepped plateaus at 6 to 20 metres off a bird-sanctuary island
Wreck
A 45 m cement ship on sand, deck at 6 m
Catalogued from 10 to 30 metres on the Chiappa cape
Catalogued from 15 m down to 40 m off Porto-Vecchio
Pinnacle
Two rock plateaus at 3 m with 36 m of water around them
Similar dives elsewhere
Shore entry to a 44 m floor across a Posidonia meadow
A pool-like training bay from 1 to 8 m
A 45-degree sand slope divers call the ski slope
Gorgonians on the vertical north wall of a submerged island