NEWS - Emirates Diving Association

DIVING DESTINATIONS
NATIONAL PARK OF PORT CROS (FRANCE)
Feature AND PHOTOGRAPHY PHILIPPE LECOMTE
DIVING DESTINATIONS
water of the park. After playing and taking some shots of these amazing
predators, we explored the area and found some nudibranches eating
seaweed. Under a rock, a big moray eel kept watch. Further along a
cliff, some brown meagres swam with a school of white seabreams.
Quite common in the mediterranean sea, different species of white
seabreams are found here. Their silver colour with black stripes or black
dots are pretty and they are not scared of human contact as in other
places where they are fished for their delicate taste. Under a rock, my
brother showed me two little red scorpion fish hidden among little
corals. Already 50 minutes go by and our first dive is finished.
Back at the boat, we decided to move to the other side of the island
to do our second dive at a depth of 12-16 metres with a good side of
sunlight.
For many people, diving means “tropical seas”. Let me show you a
beautiful heaven in the mediterrnean sea called, “Port Cros”.
The National Park of Port Cros first opened in December 1963 and
became the first underwater national park in Europe with 700 ha of
land (main island plus 3 little islands), and 1300 ha of sea protected
area. The park is a jewel of the “Côte d’Azur” and the mediterrnean
sea. There are lot of hotels, shops and restaurants in order to stay on
the main island itself, or you can take a boat from the continent and
spend the day resting or exploring the islands through trekking, kayaking,
snorkeling or diving. In the park you will find many animals such as
ground turtles, falcons, different sea bird species, snakes, bats, butterflies
and many endemic plants and flowers to Provence.
At sea, naturalists and coast guards keep a very close watch for the
protection around the island. Around the smalll island “La Gabiniere”,
mooring buoys are put in place for boats to anchor. In the park, fishing,
camping, taking plants or animals, hunting, etc are not allowed. With this
big effort, you will have the chance to sea dolphins, whales, sea turtles
and the Dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus). Almost extinct in the
mediterrnean sea due to the spearfishing activity, the Dusky grouper is
shy and very friendly. Around the island, fortunately he is very common
and his habits are studied by a lot of naturalists coming from all around
the world. With clear blue water all year round and with 15 to 25 metre
visibility, the sea around Port Cros is a sea lovers paradise. All other
sorts of mediterranean species can be found in Port Cros that are very
rare in some other countries: moray eel, conger, octopus, john dory,
european seabass, brown meagre, barracuda and even the moon fish
can sometimes be common. For the macro life, there are also differente
species of nudibranches, shrimps, crabs and much more.
As soon as we had attached our boat on one of the mooring buoys, we
saw two diving boats coming toward us full of divers. Fortunately, they
moved on the offshore side of the island.
After finishing our little breakfast, we were ready to start our second
dive. This side was very different compared to the other side, with cliffs
and big rocks. Sandy areas, rocks and neptune grass meadows were
everywhere. This grass is endemic to the Mediteranean sea and can
cover a huge area. This is a good place for juvenile fish and other species
to hide in order to escape any predators. During the dive, we saw some
big dorados swimmig slowly and trying to eat some seashells in the
sand. Suddenly between two rocks, we saw an octopus couple mating,
their breeding ritual looked like that of a dance. Without disturbing this
amazing event, we swam to shallower water to finish our dive and saw
three big European seabass swimming slowly above our heads.
These two dives were fantastic and I had forgotten how beautiful the
mediterranean sea was and how it can give you some great souvenires.
www.portcrosparcnational.fr
My familly and I went back to France for a holiday in July. After not having
been back for a few years, I had decided to take one day to dive in this
wonderful place with my brother and a friend. The forecast that day had
been excellent with no wind and very good visibility. After putting all the
gear and 4 tanks in the boat, we headed out at 6 am toward the small
island around the national park called, La gabiniere.
After a 45 minute boat ride, we arrived at our destination and were the
first boat at the dive site. BCD on, mask, fins and into the sea of 23˚C.
The visibility was 20 metres. During the descent there were no big fish.
But as soon as you reached the sea bottom and you looked around,
shapes appeared in the front, from the left and from the right. Here
they were, the Dusky groupers. Their camouflage are very efficient from
the surface. Big, medium, very big, all sizes are possible to see in the
74 EMIRATES DIVING ASSOCIATION, SEPTEMBER 2010 SEPTEMBER 2010, EMIRATES DIVING ASSOCIATION 75