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A turquoise cove with a curved pebble beach below a steep grey mountain and green slopes, with a small red-roofed building on the shore — Gökçeada

Gökçeada · Turkey · Reef · Cave & cavern

Mavikoy (Blue Bay)

A 10 m tunnel through the rock inside a no-fishing marine park

Area photo: User:Ggia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Mavikoy, or Blue Bay, lies inside the first national underwater park in Turkey. It is a shallow rock dive over blocks of rock and Posidonia seagrass, with a short tunnel as its centrepiece, and the whole bay is closed to all fishing, so fish crowd the holes among the rock blocks.

Also known as Mavikoy, Mavikoy Tünel, Blue Bay, Bluebay.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Mavikoy (Blue Bay): typical dive to 16 m (to 52 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit16 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

40.2352° N, 25.9130° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.

The dive

The bottom is rock and Posidonia seagrass, and nowhere does it go past 16 m. The feature of the dive is a tunnel about 10 m long that runs through the rock at 12 m. Around the rocks, dusky groupers, forkbeard, common dentex and brown meagre are the fish most often met, all of them protected by the fishing ban across the bay.

Marine life and season

  • Groupers
Month-by-month season rating for Mavikoy (Blue Bay)
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Off-seasonOff-seasonOff-seasonGoodGoodGoodFairFairPrimePrimeOff-seasonOff-season

Season follows Gökçeada: September and October bring the calmest sea and the clearest water; the dive centres generally close from November to March.

Know before you go

  • On some days the dive can turn into a drift dive in current.

Sources

  1. Mavikoy Tünel (Sualtı Deniz Parkı) Gökçeada — Scuba Türkiye
  2. Imbros — Wikipedia
  3. Gökçeada Dalış Rehberi — Visit Gökçeada
  4. OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap

More dive sites in Gökçeada

Wreck

Aydıncık wreck

Groupers on the scrapped hull of a ship thought lost in the Gallipoli campaign

to 27 madvanced

Wall

Kaşkaval Burnu

A wall kept in shade by the mountains above it

to 30 mintermediate

Reef

Yıldız Koyu

A seagrass trail from mid-bay down to rocks at 25 m

to 25 mintermediate

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Illa Mateua

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