Menorca · Spain · Reef
Es Cargol
A whitewater reef to 21 m that has taken ships for centuries
Area photo: Alejandro Muñoz Cabrisas · CC BY-SA 4.0
Es Cargol is a reef off the south coast near Binibeca, inside the Isla del Aire marine reserve. It shows as whitewater on the surface and has wrecked ships for centuries; underwater it is a rock cut with tunnels, arches, grottos, chimneys and holes down to 21 metres. How much current is running decides how hard the dive is.
Also known as Es Caragol Reef, Escull de Es Cargol.
Where it is and how deep
39.8096° N, 4.2536° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The reef lies offshore and announces itself as whitewater on the surface. Underwater it is a single rock riddled with tunnels, arches, grottos, chimneys and holes of different shapes, with the deepest part of the dive at 21 metres. S'Algar Diving rates it worth several dives, partly for the structure itself and partly for the chance of finding remains of the ships it has taken.
The fish life is thick for the depth: schools of barracuda and of damselfish over the rock, groupers in the larger holes, moray eels in the cracks, and nudibranchs and other molluscs on the surfaces for anyone working them slowly. The variable is current — Scubago is explicit that how much is running decides the level of the dive, so the same reef can be an easy circuit or a hard swim.
Background
S'Algar Diving describes Es Caragol as a whitewater reef off the coast that has been the bane of ships for centuries, and lists the chance of finding remains of the many wrecks recorded on it among the reasons to dive the site more than once. No individual loss is named on the published accounts. The reef now sits inside the Isla del Aire marine reserve, and the centre groups it with its other sites inside the reserve boundary.
Marine life and season
- Barracuda
- Reef fish swarms
- 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 Menorca: Menorca's tourist season runs May to October; June to September holds the warmest water, near 25–27°C in August, while February and March fall to about 12–14°C.
Know before you go
- Current is the deciding factor here rather than depth: on an offshore reef with whitewater on top, the day's conditions set whether the dive is an easy circuit or a working one.
Sources
- Es Cargol — Scubago
- Diving in Menorca's Marine Reserve - Dive Sites — S'Algar Diving
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Seamount
A seamount circled at the edge of the northern reserve
Wreck
A Second World War Ju 88 on open sand at 45 to 47 metres
Wreck
A 110 m steamship with her deck at 30 m and the sand at 40
Wreck
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Similar dives elsewhere
An arch and a cave with barracuda schools, over sand and posidonia
Try-dive shallows at 3-5 m, groupers on the way to 16 m
White gorgonians, nudibranchs and lobsters in the faults at 18 to 20 m
Blocks, caves and furrows in the south face that took ships' anchors