Menorca, the area around Illa de Bledes

Menorca · Spain · Seamount · Wall

Illa de Bledes

A seamount circled at the edge of the northern reserve

Area photo: Alejandro Muñoz Cabrisas · CC BY-SA 4.0

Bledes is a submarine mountain off the Illa de ses Bledes on the north coast of Menorca, dived as a circuit rather than a line: the walls around it drop to 30 metres and the route follows them round. It is one of the furthest sites from Fornells and the closest to the North Menorca integral marine reserve, and the fish count shows it.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Illa de Bledes: typical dive to 30 m (to 100 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit30 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

40.0695° N, 4.0332° EPublished position for this site.

The dive

The boat anchors over the submarine mountain next to the Illa de ses Bledes and the dive is a circuit of it: down onto the rock, then round the walls, which drop to 30 metres. The shape of the mount does the navigating, and the holes worked into the rock, and the life sheltering in them, are what the route is planned around rather than any single depth.

The walls are drilled with holes and that is where the detail sits: moray eels back in the cracks, octopus, and nudibranchs on the rock for anyone slowing down. Out from the face there are barracuda, groupers, seabream, dentex and damselfish over the mount, and rays are seen here too. Being the nearest dive to the integral reserve at the north of Menorca is the plain reason for the numbers here.

Marine life and season

  • Groupers
  • Barracuda
  • Stingrays
  • Octopus & cuttlefish
  • Nudibranchs
Month-by-month season rating for Illa de Bledes
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Off-seasonOff-seasonOff-seasonFairGoodPrimePrimePrimePrimeGoodFairOff-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.

Sources

  1. Illa de Bledes — Scubago

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