Punta Prima

Punta Prima drops from a shallow posidonia shelf and open rock face into one of Formentera's most vertical descents. The upper zone (5-18m) is well-lit and relatively open: posidonia meadow gives way to a rock face with red scorpionfish in the shadow lines and red mullet working the seagrass fringe. At 18m the terrain shifts. The wall breaks apart into a genuine labyrinth — crevices, tunnels, and rock-slide passages that run north-to-south and require active navigation. Groupers hold position in the deeper shadows; moray eels extend from almost every crevice of any size. Conger eels and lobsters occupy the darker recesses.

The descent ends at a sandy floor at 28m where the site changes character again. Stingrays rest here, and the posidonia fringe holds the site's most distinctive inhabitants: seahorses. They are not easy to spot without guidance — they hold still and match the colour of the seagrass — but the patient diver with a good guide will find them.

A mild current often runs at the headland top. It rarely presents difficulty in the labyrinth itself, where the rock structure provides shelter.

Punta Prima covers more terrain in a single dive than any other site in Formentera's standard portfolio. Three distinct environments stack vertically: a sunlit posidonia-and-rock upper zone for intermediate exploration, a navigation-demanding labyrinth through the mid-wall, and a quiet sandy floor where species rarely seen at other area sites — seahorses, stingrays, stargazers — hold their ground. The site is explicitly recommended for more experienced divers, and that recommendation holds. The labyrinth is genuinely complex. The reward for reaching the floor at 28m is a species assemblage that differs entirely from what you saw on the way down.

The labyrinth at 18-28m demands good buoyancy control — the tunnels are tight in places. The sandy floor hosts greater weevers, which carry venomous dorsal spines; move calmly across sandy areas and stay off the bottom. Seahorses require slow movement and a patient guide who knows the current locations.

A mild current typically runs at the headland top. A 5mm wetsuit works for summer; the floor at 28m stays around 15-18°C in peak summer, so bring a 7mm for any shoulder-season diving. No extraction of any kind is permitted inside the Es Freus reserve.