Cartagena, Murcia, Spain

Cabo Tinoso

Cabo Tinoso is a sheer limestone headland between Cartagena and Mazarron on Spain's southeastern Mediterranean coast, west of the Cabo de Palos reserve. The dive sites along the cape are among the most consistent of the Murcia region, with vertical walls dropping from the surface to 35 metres on a sand and rubble bottom, decorated with red and yellow gorgonia colonies, encrusting sponges and red coral colonies under the deeper overhangs. Marine life is rich, with large dusky groupers and brown meagre, schools of dentex patrolling the wall, saddled seabream and salema, octopus, scorpionfish and moray eels. Pelagic encounters with barracuda and amberjack are frequent in late summer, and sunfish are reported in May and June. The site is normally calm, currents are weak and visibility is consistent around 20 metres, making the cape an excellent intermediate destination outside the heavily booked Cabo de Palos reserve. 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.