Diving in Tarifa

Isla de las Palomas, about 500 metres long and joined to the town by a causeway, holds nearly all the diving here, with sites five to ten minutes by boat from the harbour. The Strait of Gibraltar moves Atlantic and Mediterranean water past it on the tide, currents reach about 4 knots at peak coefficients, and each day's dives are built around slack water.

The east face opens to the Mediterranean and the west face to the Atlantic, and each dives differently. Las Laminarias on the east face is the kelp dive: Laminaria ochroleuca first appears around 25 metres, with fronds up to about 4 metres in summer. At the southern tip, Punta Marroquí sets a long vertical cliff on its eastern side against a gorgonian reef on its western side. The Pecio de San Andrés is a nineteenth-century paddle steamer lying between about 22 and 39 metres, with conger eels living in its caves; accounts of her name and loss differ.

Easier dives sit on the shallow, sheltered north face at La Garita, where ancient stone anchors lie in the sand, on the east face at La Piscina, an easy boulder garden, and on the west face among the eroded blocks of Las Calles, which has a cavern that daylight reaches. The levante, the strong east wind, decides more often than the calendar which of these a boat chooses.

Scientific work in the Strait has cited more than 1,900 species of marine flora and fauna. Moray and conger eels live at nearly every site, orange cup coral sheets the walls, swallowtail seaperch hang over the rock, and groupers are around but keep their distance. Loggerhead turtles turn up in summer, and one operator reports La Piscina as the place it sees the most of them; sunfish and eagle rays appear on some dives.

The island sits inside the Parque Natural del Estrecho, a natural park of about 18,900 hectares, half of it marine, that forms part of the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean declared in 2006. Diving falls under Decreto 130/2024, in force since 30 July 2024.1 Authorisations are requested from the head of the environment delegation in Cádiz; the decree does not say whether the diver or the centre applies, so ask the centre you book with whether it covers the point you are given. Dives run by clubs and centres include a briefing on how fragile the environment is. The diving operators advertise is guided boat diving from the harbour, and centres plan the day's sites around slack water and wind, so ask what is planned for the date you book.

The current can break its timetable and start without warning, which is the case against shore diving and for a boat with surface support.

The water holds around 15 to 20 C all year, so a full wetsuit with hood and gloves is advised even in summer. La Garita, La Piscina, La Pared and Las Calles are the easy sites. Las Laminarias is moderate, from 22 metres down, in current that only slack water tames. Punta Marroquí (14 to 45 metres) and the wreck (22 to 39 metres) are the demanding dives, in current and at depth. We put the wreck at Advanced Open Water as the minimum, since none of it lies shallower than about 22 metres, so it is not a dive for an Open Water card; ask which depth the group will keep.