Cabo de Palos, Murcia, Spain

Bajo de Fuera

Bajo de Fuera is the most celebrated dive of the Cabo de Palos and Hormigas Islands marine reserve, declared in 1995 around the cape that marks the boundary between the Costa Calida and the Costa Blanca. The site is a large isolated seamount around 1.5 nautical miles offshore, rising from a 60 metre sand bottom to a summit at 16 metres. The pinnacle is regarded as the best site of mainland Spain for large fish and pelagic encounters. Massive aggregations of dentex, brown meagre and dusky groupers patrol the rock, often surrounded by tornados of barracuda, schools of bluefish and amberjack hunting in the blue. Sunfish are reported in summer, and the reserve hosts at least three major wrecks within reach, including the Sirio. Because of the depth, current and offshore exposure, the site is for advanced divers, dived as a drift around the pinnacle's contour. The Cabo de Palos and Hormigas Islands marine reserve, declared in 1995, is one of the best-recovered fish populations of the western Mediterranean and a benchmark for the regional government of Murcia. Water temperature ranges from 14 C in February to 26 C in August. Dive operators are concentrated in the village of Cabo de Palos at the tip of the Mar Menor lagoon and access to the reserve is regulated by daily quotas on the most popular sites such as Bajo de Fuera and the Naranjito wreck.