Cabo de Palos Islas Hormigas

Cartagena · Murcia · Spain

Cabo de Palos guards the southeastern corner of Spain where the Mar Menor lagoon meets the Mediterranean, and offshore from this unassuming fishing village rises one of the most important marine reserves in European waters. The Islas Hormigas are a chain of volcanic pinnacles and small islets that break the surface two kilometres offshore, but the real drama lies below. The seamounts continue underwater, their walls plunging from near-surface to over 60 metres, creating a current-swept topography that concentrates marine life in Mediterranean quantities that seem almost tropical. I have dived Islas Hormigas across four seasons, and the site that consistently amazes is Bajo de Dentro, a submerged pinnacle rising to 12 metres from a base at 45 metres. Descending the mooring line, the first things you see are the groupers. Dusky groupers here are the largest and most numerous I have encountered anywhere in the Mediterranean, some exceeding 15 kilograms, and they approach divers with a bold curiosity that speaks of three decades without hunting pressure. On a summer morning, I had seven groupers within arm's reach simultaneously, each one watching me with those remarkably expressive dark eyes. The barracuda are Cabo de Palos's signature spectacle. Mediterranean barracuda aggregate here in schools that researchers have documented exceeding 1,000 individuals. The first time I saw the formation, I mistook it for a dark cloud moving across the reef. The school shifted and reformed above the pinnacle summit, a living silver wall that parted to flow around me and reformed behind. No other Mediterranean site produces barracuda aggregations of this scale. Eagle rays cruise the walls, occasionally in groups of four or five, their wings catching the light as they bank along the vertical rock face. Amberjack patrol the blue water off the pinnacle edges, and large dentex hover at depth. In autumn, ocean sunfish drift into the area, their bizarre flat bodies often spotted at the summit of Bajo de Dentro.