Rodalquilar, Andalusia, Spain

Punta de la Polacra

Punta de la Polacra is a rocky cape under one of the iconic eighteenth-century watchtowers of the Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park between Las Negras and Rodalquilar. The dive site begins on a shallow boulder reef at 8 metres and progresses along a vertical wall to 30 metres on a sand and Posidonia bottom. The walls are decorated with sponges, encrusting yellow anemone and small red coral colonies under the overhangs. The dive is a reliable spot for large dusky groupers and brown meagre, octopus, conger and Mediterranean moray eels, while the open water around the cape attracts schools of barracuda in late summer and amberjack hunting in the blue. The protected Posidonia meadows along the descent host pipefish, fan mussels recovering after the recent parasite outbreak and juvenile saddled seabream. Conditions are normally calm and visibility ranges from 15 to 25 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.