Port de la Selva

Port de la Selva opens up the northern sector of Cap de Creus Natural Park, where 20 dive sites spread across a coastline of ancient Paleozoic rock. The geology here — schist, pegmatite, and gneiss formed 250-350 million years ago — creates an underwater landscape of vertical walls, caves, tunnels, and pinnacles shaped by differential erosion. Depths range from sheltered shallows to walls dropping past 40 metres. El Molar, described by local operators as one of their favourites, offers a sandy bottom fringed by rock walls covered in white and red gorgonians at 12-25 metres with negligible current. The 1884 Woodside wreck — an English steamer lost in fog on the Sete-to-London route — sits at 25 metres with red gorgonians now growing across its hull.

This is the least-trafficked sector of Cap de Creus, and that relative quiet shows in the marine life. The area's gorgonian forests — both red and lilac specimens — are among the most extensive on the Costa Brava. Red coral (Corallium rubrum) grows in the deeper sections, while the rock surfaces host an unusually diverse nudibranch population documented by the local dive centre: Cratena peregrina, Felimare tricolor, Flabellina affinis, and Thuridilla hopei among others. Seahorses (Hippocampus guttulatus) have been photographed here, alongside the more typical Mediterranean cast of groupers, barracuda, lobsters, and moray eels. The geological contrast — dark metamorphic rock veined with lighter pegmatite intrusions — gives the walls and formations a distinctive visual character found nowhere else on the coast.

Cap de Creus operates under a complex 2025 regulatory framework that limits the number of dive operators and dive frequency across the park. Diving here requires an authorized centre or prior notification for independent divers, and a mandatory ecobriefing covers park conservation before your first dive. Bring your certification card, logbook, and medical clearance (max two years old). The S'Encalladora zone is a strict natural reserve where diving is prohibited entirely. Cap de Creus Dive operates year-round from Port de la Selva harbour, with their centre just 10 metres from the boat.