Golfe de Valinco · France · Reef
La Roche Bleue
Red gorgonians that read blue at 30 to 45 m
Area photo: Valinco Drone · CC BY-SA 4.0
La Roche Bleue is a rock plateau in the 30 to 45 m band, covered in red gorgonians that at this depth read as blue, the effect the Porto-Pollo centre describes on it. The boat drops you on rock at 25 m; the north side of the site falls to 40 m and the south side to sand at 47 m. Nudibranchs, moray, dentex and grouper live on it.
Where it is and how deep
41.6959° N, 8.8005° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The descent lands on rock at 25 m, the shallowest ground on the site, and the plateau spreads out from there through the 30 to 45 m band. North of the rock the bottom is at 40 m; south of it the sand lies at 47 m, so the north side is the more forgiving way to run the profile.
The gorgonians are the point of the dive. They are red, but at this depth the water has taken the red out of them and the Porto-Pollo centre describes them as looking blue — a light brought down here puts the colour back into the fans one at a time. A wide variety of nudibranchs is on the rock between them, with moray, dentex and grouper on the plateau.
Marine life and season
- Groupers
- Nudibranchs
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Off-season |
Season follows Golfe de Valinco: Both centres run April to November and close for the winter; the water is 18 °C at the edges of that season and 23 °C at its height.
Sources
- La roche bleue — Scubago (SSI)
- Sites et spots de plongée - Porto Pollo (archived) — 3P Porto Pollo Plongée via Wayback Machine
More dive sites in Golfe de Valinco
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A north-south drop-off from a 5 m rock head into 45 m
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A rare Corsican black-coral branch in the 35 m zone
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Rock spires off a 45 m plateau, the tallest topping out at 9 m
Pinnacle
Rock towers rising from 50 m to 6 m below the surface
Reef
Protected training water at the dive centre's own beach
Similar dives elsewhere
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