Cala Calella

The dive starts on the south shoulder of Punta Salines and works the coast back into the cove. Above 15 m the coralligenous wall is busy: castanyoles hang in clouds over the rock, three-tails flicker in shaded overhangs, and scorpionfish settle into crevices where a torch is the difference between seeing them and missing them. Past 18-20 m the wall steps down through coralligenous patches toward sandy bottom, with small caves and recesses where moray eels - and, gencat's "fins i tot algun mero" notwithstanding, the occasional grouper - take refuge. Most divers turn around at the sand and run the shallows again on the way back, picking up detail the first pass missed.

Two things place this site on a coast-day list. It is on the Generalitat's official 16-itinerary catalogue, with a per-site ecobriefing reissued in April 2024, and its 6-30 m range plus all-levels rating make it one of the few coast cove dives that legitimately serves a try-dive group, an Open Water profile, and a deeper Advanced run on the same boat. The pull is benthic: schooling fish on the wall, anthias in shadow, and the macro detail in the rock - not the dense reserve concentrations a kilometre offshore.

Carry a torch. Most of the visible life sits in shaded crevices and small caves on the wall, and the site reads as bare rock without a light. Punta Salines is exposed; tramuntana N/NNE is the coast's main cancel driver, and force 4 or above is a hard pause without solid coast experience. The coralligenous wall is slow-growing - the park calls it fragile - so trim and buoyancy matter here: stay off the structure, hover, don't settle. Cave-recess discipline applies: small groups, no penetration past natural light, no recreational dives beyond 30 m inside any cave.