Sète & Frontignan · France · Reef
Quilles Sud
Flat slabs to 10 m on a little-dived, exposed stretch
Area photo: Christian Ferrer · CC BY 4.0
An exposed site off the Canal des Quilles that few boats bother with: a fairly flat bottom of rock slabs and sandy areas, 10 m at the deepest. The dive school is blunt about the life, mostly green anemones, oysters and large green Codium algae with few fish except when rafts concentrate sars, and conditions rather than depth decide whether the dive happens.
Where it is and how deep
43.3878° N, 3.6638° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The ground is flat, rock slabs with sandy areas between them, bottoming out at 10 m, so there is no wall or edge to follow and the dive is a search across open ground rather than a route. Work the joins between slab and sand, which is where the growth sits: green anemones, oysters and clumps of large green Codium algae over the rock.
Fish are the exception here. The dive school rates the area as a poor one, and the times it comes alive are when certain rafts concentrate sars over the site. What really decides the dive is the weather. The site is exposed, visibility is unpredictable from one day to the next, and current runs strongly at times, so it is dived when conditions allow rather than on request, which is part of why it stays so little visited.
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.
Know before you go
- Current runs strongly here at times on an exposed stretch of coast: dive it on a settled forecast and keep the boat's line within reach rather than drifting off across the slabs.
- Visibility is unpredictable from one day to the next, so agree the plan on the boat and keep the buddy pair tight over featureless open ground.
Sources
- Quilles sud - Scubago — Scubago / École de Plongée Sétoise
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