Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon & Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone · France · Reef
M109
One rock split by a fault, 11 m up to 6 m
Area photo: Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
A single rock 60 m long and 40 m wide off Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, its base at 11 m and its plateau at 6 m, with one large fault cutting straight through the middle of it. The top carries a field of gorgonians and lobster lurk in the rift, on a coast where depth is not the point and one block of rock is the whole dive.
Where it is and how deep
43.4976° N, 3.8896° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
M109 is a lone rock off Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, 60 m by 40 m, sitting with its base at 11 m and its plateau up at 6 m. That is the whole site: one block on open bottom, small enough to swim around inside a single dive and shallow enough to do it without watching a computer. A large fault cuts through the middle of the rock and splits it in two.
The obvious route is around the outside of the rock and then along the fault, which is where the interesting ground is: lobster often lurk in the rift. On the plateau above, a field of gorgonians covers the rock. Nothing about the dive is demanding — with 11 m at the deepest point the limit is your gas, and the shallow top of the rock makes a natural place to finish.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
| 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.
Sources
- M109, dive site — Scubago/SSI
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