Baja Rosario

Baja Rosario has two shapes side by side: a volcanic hollow whose walls are covered in polyps and anemones, with a floor near 12 m, and a main mountain whose long flat summit sits at 6 m. Shrimp and crabs live in the crevices of the hollow, and lobsters show at some times of year. From the summit, lava-flow canyons run down the flanks to a sand plain beyond 30 m, where a small colony of garden eels lives at the foot of the mountain. Most dives stay above 25 m. One operator describes dives here facing open water, where pelagics pass by, while dusky groupers, amberjack and moray eels stay close to the rock.

Until 2019, female smalltooth sand tiger sharks (Odontaspis ferox), a deep-water species, could be watched in the hollow here. In August 2025 sightings were reported at Baja Rosario and El Salto, after about six years without confirmed sightings around El Hierro. The sharks are not here every year or all year, so a booking for the shark alone is a gamble. Sightings are reported to be easier in the afternoon.

The shallow top also suits photographers. Operators point to the first hours of sun, when light comes in behind the volcanic crags and backlights them.

A strong south swell reaches the site on a few days a year because the coast is close. For most of the year boats from the La Restinga centres work the site, and each buoy takes 12 divers. One La Restinga centre's own shark rule in 2019 was a two-metre minimum distance, no chasing and no cutting across the animal's path; if one appears, follow the guide's lead.