Sète & Frontignan · France · Artificial reef
Les Patates
Three dumped rock mounds on a bottom of 14 m
Area photo: Christian Ferrer · CC BY 4.0
Three mounds of rock — the patates — tipped offshore during the renovation of Sète's breakwater, standing on a bottom of around 14 m. The route is as simple as the site: circle one mound, cross to the next. The piles are full of holes, and crustaceans and conger eels are the animals divers count on finding in them.
Where it is and how deep
43.3926° N, 3.6946° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The three mounds sit on a bottom of around 14 m, and the plan is exactly what it sounds like: drop onto the first, circle it, then cross the open ground to the next and do the same. They are piles of dumped rock rather than reef, so the interest is in the gaps between the blocks, and every crevice is worth a slow look on the way round.
The fauna is the hole-dwelling kind. Crustaceans are common and conger eels are seen regularly, backed into the deeper spaces in the piles along with the rest of the life the rock shelters. Visibility can be average rather than good, so the site is read close up: move slowly, keep your buoyancy tidy over loose rock, and take the mounds one at a time so the navigation stays simple whatever the water is doing.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Sète & Frontignan: The sea averages about 12 °C in February against 22 °C in August and stays above 20 °C from June to October; cuttlefish return to the coast in April, and wind can close the exposed sites.
Sources
- Les patates - Scubago — Scubago / École de Plongée Sétoise
More dive sites in Sète & Frontignan
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The deepest point of the Étang de Thau, at 32 m
Reef
Shallow slabs at 7 m, a site for navigation practice
Wreck
A 1905 trader broken in two on sand at 18 m
Reef
Flat slabs to 10 m on a little-dived, exposed stretch
Two artillery pieces on a sand-and-rock bottom
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