La Herradura, Andalusia, Spain

Cerro Gordo

Cerro Gordo is the eastern wall of the Maro-Cerro Gordo natural area on Granada's coast, directly opposite La Herradura, and the deeper sister dive of El Mosquito. The wall starts at 6 metres on the inshore boulders and descends vertically to 35 metres on a sand and rubble bottom, with a series of overhangs at 18 and 25 metres that host the densest red gorgonia colonies of the Alboran Sea coast. The walls also carry yellow encrusting anemone, sponges, small red coral colonies under the deepest overhangs and the occasional Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis recovering after the parasite outbreak. Marine life is dense and diverse: large dusky groupers, brown meagre, saddled seabream and salema schools, octopus, painted comber and the occasional bull ray. Sunfish are reported in late spring and large tuna pass through in summer. Visibility is moderate at 10 to 15 metres. The Andalusian Mediterranean coast covers the Alboran Sea, the boundary between Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, and benefits from the inflow of cooler Atlantic surface water that supports a mixed fauna unique in the basin. Water temperature ranges from 14 C in February to 25 C in August. Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park and the Maro-Cerro Gordo natural area are the two principal MPAs, and dive operators run from Almeria, La Herradura and Roquetas de Mar.