Activities / 4 Mar 2021

Diving 365 days a year in Sant Antoni

he crystal-clear waters of Sant Antoni are a real treat for diving enthusiasts. Beneath them, a seabed teeming with life awaits the diver, offering an extraordinary diversity of species and impressive seascapes made up of a whole variety of rocky formations: seemingly infinite vertical walls, winding corridors, enormous caves and stone arches… The cleanliness of its waters ensures optimum visibility at any of its many dive sites and the mild climate, with sea temperatures ranging from 14 to 28 degrees, guarantees the enjoyment of scuba diving 365 days a year.

Sant Antoni also has a wide range of professional diving centres and PADI diving courses for all levels. From beginner to expert level, the diving centres in Sant Antoni offer high quality training with the highest safety standards: PADI Scuba Diver, PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, PADI Rescue Diver, etc.

To dive in Sant Antoni is to discover the sea as you have never done before. These are two of the most incredible dive sites off the coast of Portmany.

Es Llosar dive site (Punta Galera)

This magnificent dive site is ideal for the novice diver as you can dive to depths of 6 and 12 metres. At these depths you can enjoy the area’s rich and abundant fauna: octopus, cuttlefish, moray eels and rock fish that live among the innumerable large rocks which form a labyrinthine network of corridors. An extraordinary seascape in which the diver will be overwhelmed by the majestic beauty and transparency of the calm waters.

Punta Galera

Qualified Open Water divers can dive to a depth of up to 18 metres. There, following the sinuous cliffs, you will observe shoals of defiant barracudas which, with their attentive sidelong glances and their swimming formations, encircling the divers, never fail to impress. These magnificent hunters, constantly on the lookout for other shoals of fish, are one of the main attractions of this beautiful diving experience. In the well-known fishermen’s channel, immersions to greater depths are reserved for advanced divers only, as its depth can exceed 50 metres. This sinuous underwater formation is a place of passage for large fish such as the greater amberjack, weighing up to 30 kg. Indeed, such is the abundance of these large fish passing through this deep channel that it is not uncommon to find a network of fishermen lining the winding corridor.

Ses Margalides dive site (Isla Margarita)

Ses Margalides is located to the north of the coast of Sant Antoni, just a 25-minute sail from the coast of Santa Agnès, surrounded by the sea. The fact that it is exposed to the four winds means that diving in Ses Margalides requires special conditions both for landing in the area and for diving.

Ses Margalides

This dive site has very deep waters, so in order to enjoy the dive you need to be an experienced diver and on some immersions you also need to master certain specialities, such as cave diving.

In its deep waters, Isla Margarita conceals an endless number of underwater galleries, some of them at great depths. Few divers dare to follow the vertical wall that emerges to the right of the arch due to its great depth of up to 60m.

The island itself is like a Swiss cheese on the inside. The experienced diver will have the opportunity to do the typical and most common dive, which is shown in the attached infographic. (Route 13)

In this deep dive the shoals of fish that abound are the European barracuda, of an enormous size (some specimens exceeding one metre in length), as well as conger eels, which shelter in the numerous crevices and which can weigh more than 15 kg and, in the case of the females, measure more than 2 metres in length, with awe-inspiring heads.

The gigantism of some predatory species is a common feature on this island due to its isolation, abundance of prey and lack of competitors. Large groupers, moray eels and conger eels have been found cohabiting in the same cave on this island. This is not surprising since, if left undisturbed, groupers can live in their cave as adults for up to 50 years, with some individuals reaching a whopping 50 kg in weight.

Mediterranean grouper

The regular dive is an immersion into the deep blue zone where the diver can observe how the sun’s rays lose their intensity in the immensity of the seabed.

Following the cliff, we will explore galleries and following the channel to our left we will skirt the islet off the coast of Isla Margarita. The depths of the wall are beyond the limits that most organisations allow, so the recommendation is to follow the regular route of the dive schedule.

Depending on the time of year we dive, we may encounter shoals of migratory species such as the voracious bluefin tuna; especially in May, when they head for the eastern Mediterranean to spawn, and in October, when they return from spawning.

‘From our boat we were lucky enough to observe a large school of bluefin tuna feeding in the vicinity of the island. In an instant the sea was boiling with the foam caused by the continuous flapping of this insatiable migratory species of our beloved Mediterranean Sea’.