Crete · Greece · Reef · Pinnacle
Mononaftis
Barracuda circling over a reef 50 m off the beach
Photo: Giuseppe Milo (www.pixael.com) · CC BY 2.0
A rock standing out of the sea about 50 m off the beach at Agia Pelagia, with reef running out from it into deeper water. The dive works along that reef through small canyons, holes and the cavities under the rock, with schools of barracuda circling higher in the water. It is dived from the beach or by boat, and depths run from around 18 m out to 28, with 35 m on the deepest ground.
Also known as Mononaftis Bay, Mononaftis Rock.
Where it is and how deep
35.4083° N, 25.0231° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The rock is the landmark: it breaks the surface about 50 m out from the beach, and the dive follows the reef that runs from it. The route works through small canyons and larger holes, past small caves and the cavities underneath the rock, which is where a torch earns its place. Depths run from around 18 m down to 28, with the deepest ground on the site at 35 m.
This is reported as the richest patch around Agia Pelagia for both fish and plant life. Groupers and octopus hold in the rock, moray eels sit back in the cracks, and red and black scorpionfish stay still against it; schools of salema and banded and saddled bream move over the reef, with stingrays on the sand and sponges, anemones and shells filling in the smaller ground.
Higher in the water there are large schools of barracuda, and they will turn in wide circles around a diver who gives them something to circle. The return runs back along the reef into the shallows and the beach, which keeps the dive simple to plan on a single tank and is why the site works for inexperienced divers as well as experienced ones.
Marine life and season
- Barracuda
- Groupers
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Stingrays
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Crete: April to November is the season, warmest from July to September; the summer meltemi can blow out the exposed north-coast sites for a day or two at a time.
Dive videos
Diving in Agia Pelagia (Crete) - Mononaftis 2018.08 · Tomasz Tanski on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Can you shore dive Mononaftis?+
Yes. The rock is about 50 m off the beach and PADI lists the site for both shore and boat entry, so most dives here start as a walk-in from the bay.
Sources
- Mononaftis Dive Site Guide | Greece — Dive Navigator
- Mononaftis, Greece: Scuba Diving — Open Water Atlas
- Mononaftis dive site | PADI — PADI
Photo credits
- Rocky coastline at Mononaftis silhouetted against an orange sunset over the sea by Giuseppe Milo (www.pixael.com), CC BY 2.0, via Openverse
In The Logbook
- The best shore dives in the worldShore diving · 8 min read
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