Tascó Petit

Two dives start from this islet. The east route runs toward Carall Bernat at 5 to 25 metres, past giant groupers, sea fans, sea bream and morays, with sea slugs among the stones in its lower part. The other follows the buoy down and then a sea-fan wall heading south, much deeper. Its bottom is quoted at 40 or 45 metres, deeper than the park recommends for recreational dives, so what the group does there is the centre's call on the day. Groupers hide on the wall, scorpion fishes and dentex sit on it, and barracuda hunt bogas in its higher part. Mind the dive computer on this route to avoid running off decompression time. On the south side, rocks at 22 metres hold nudibranchs, crabs and the full range of macro life before the gorgonian canyon.

Red gorgonian reef is charted on four sides of the islet: about 16 m on the west, 17 to 25 m on the south-west, a short stretch at 12 to 16 m on the south-east foot and an arc at about 20 m on the east. That puts gorgonians at working depth, which is the draw here. The park lists the gorgonian, the bryozoan Myriapora truncata and the nudibranch Cratena peregrina as fragile, and barracuda and greater amberjack as seasonal visitors. Tascó Petit sits halfway between Les Ferranelles and Carall Bernat, and a channel about 5 m deep separates it from Tascó Gros.

Ask the guide about the current direction before descent. It decides whether the group can circle the islet, and it can be too strong to do so. The Tascons are among the exposed Medes sites where north and levante winds build strong current. On the wall route, watch the dive computer for unplanned decompression. Nitrox 32% is recommended for the site. The water cools sharply below about 15 to 18 metres, to roughly 17°C at 32 metres, so plan exposure protection for the water at depth.