Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon & Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone · France · Reef
Les Moures
A cavity-riddled plateau at 14 m, torch in hand
Area photo: Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
About 15 minutes of navigation from port, Les Moures is a plateau at 14 m with the bottom around it at 19 m. The rock is cut with cavities and the dive is a search of them: conger eels and lobster hidden in the holes, feather stars and nudibranchs alongside them. Without a torch you will not see into the site at all.
Where it is and how deep
43.4760° N, 3.8883° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Fifteen minutes of navigation puts you over a plateau at 14 m with the surrounding bottom at 19 m. The rock is cut with cavities, and that sets the character of the dive: rather than covering distance, you work along the plateau and its edge and look into the cavities one at a time, which is slow work and rewards a group that is happy to stay in one place.
Conger eels and lobster hold in the holes, and feather stars and nudibranchs are logged alongside them. A torch is not optional here — the cavities are dark and the site's life is inside them, so the divers who get the most out of Les Moures are the ones prepared to stop and light up the ground in front of them before moving on.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
- Nudibranchs
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon & Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone: Clubs dive year-round, but logged visibility sits near 2 m and the sea at 10-12 °C from January to March; one club runs seven days a week in July and August.
Know before you go
- Everything worth seeing is inside dark cavities, so carry a torch and hold your buoyancy off the rock when you put your head into a hole.
Sources
- Les Moures, dive site — Scubago/SSI
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