Ibiza & Formentera · Spain · Wreck · Artificial reef
La Plataforma de la Marinana
A sunken fish farm hanging at an angle from 12 m to 35 m
Area photo: Fabian Hurst · CC BY-SA 4.0
A floating fish-farm platform that a storm put on the bottom inside the Es Freus marine reserve. It never settled flat: one side rests on the seabed at 35 metres while the other is still held up by its old floating pylons at 12 metres. Its hexagonal cage frames, and the school of barracuda that patrols them, are what the dive is about.
Also known as La Mariana.
Where it is and how deep
38.7903° N, 1.4722° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The platform was a floating structure used as a nursery by a fish farm before a storm sank it, and it did not come to rest flat. One side lies on the seabed at 35 metres while the other is still suspended by the old flotation pylons at 12 metres, so the whole thing hangs on an angle and the dive works along that slope rather than at a single level.
Clouds of damselfish surround the upper part of the structure, and its cracks hold scorpion fish, moray eels and conger eels, with slipper lobsters and spiny lobsters further down towards the bottom. A large school of barracuda circles the site between 20 and 35 metres and will often hold still as divers pass; groupers and amberjacks come through as well, and in May schools of amberjack are a frequent encounter.
The wreck
- Vessel
- La Mariana fish-farm platform
- Type
- Floating aquaculture nursery platform
- Cause
- Sank in a storm
- Lies
- Oblique, one side on the seabed at 35 m and the other held up by its old flotation pylons at 12 m
The structure was a floating platform used as a nursery by a fish farm in the water between Ibiza and Formentera. A storm sank it, and it came to rest at an oblique angle, one side on the bottom at 35 metres and the other still supported by its own flotation pylons at 12 metres. The cages are hexagonal. The two operators who document the site do not agree on the year it went down: Orcasub gives 1996, Scubago 1997.
Marine life and season
- Barracuda
- Trevally & jacks
- Groupers
- Macro critters
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Off-season |
Season follows Ibiza & Formentera: Logged dives climb from April, peak in July and August and fall away through November; December to March activity is negligible on both islands.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the sunken platform off Formentera?+
It lies at an angle: the low side is on the seabed at 35 metres and the high side is held up by its old flotation pylons at 12 metres. The operator rates the dive intermediate to advanced.
Sources
More dive sites in Ibiza & Formentera
Pinnacle
A shoal from 24 m of sand up to 3 m below the surface
Cave & cavern
A wide 4-9 m entrance into a chamber with an air pocket
Three passes cut clean through the islet wall
Wall
A reserve wall to 20 m with a small arch full of life
Pinnacle
A cone of rock offshore, circled between 10 and 28 m
A holed wall from a 5 m platform down to 30 m
Seamount
A seamount from 50 m to centimetres under the surface
Reef
A reserve dive to 28 m, with the route cut to fit the group
Similar dives elsewhere
A ferry at 42 m, reached by a giant stride from the rocks
A 115 m tanker broken in two, upright on clean sand
Groupers hold in the frames of a scuttled minesweeper
Tarragona's signature wreck dive, an 18 m ship a few minutes from the quay