L'Encalladora

The park's own dive buoy for S'Encalladora sits at 17 metres, over a stretch of rocky reef that the government's chart contours from about 5 metres, on rock platforms either side of the buoy, out to 32 metres at the mapped area's furthest corner.1 Six species headline the same eco-briefing sheet for this exact point: common stingray, dusky grouper, European seabass, gilthead seabream, brown meagre and yellowmouth barracuda.1 Getting there means crossing the Freu de Sa Clavaguera, the roughly 50-metre channel that separates the island from the Cap de Creus mainland and gives the crossing some shelter from the Tramuntana.

L'Encalladora's defining feature is a boundary: the buoyed S'Encalladora (RNP) itinerary sits directly beside the park's only marine Integral Nature Reserve, RNI Nord de S'Encalladora, a separate zone on the same island where diving, swimming and anchoring are prohibited outright.2 The park's current regulation, in force since August 2025, draws that closure specifically around the reserve; everywhere else in the park, including this buoyed point, diving continues under the ordinary rules.2 A local nature-writing account separately credits the island as roughly 600 metres end to end, with a dark schist base topped by paler pegmatite blocks that give the rock a visibly banded look.

Independent divers need to notify the park in advance and stay within its cap of six dives a day, thirty a week and 120 a year, applied per boat rather than per diver; night dives and baptism or first-level courses need the park's own special authorisation on this Partial Nature Reserve point.2 The more immediate line to know before getting in the water: this buoy sits right next to the adjacent no-dive Integral Reserve, so stay inside the signed S'Encalladora itinerary and check the boundary with your centre if you are ever unsure which side of it you are on.