SeaLogItaly · reef
Shallow rock and white sand on the Stalettì headland, on the same shore as Cassiodorus's rock-cut Roman fish tanks.
Copanello is a frazione of Stalettì on the Ionian coast of Calabria, on the rocky headland that separates the beaches of Caminia and Copanello from the long sand of the Gulf of Squillace. Very little is published about this particular entry as a dive, and it is one of three pins the catalogue holds inside 800 m of the same short stretch of coast, together with Blu 70, Copanello and Torrazzo, Caminia. What is described, and described by a local club rather than a directory, is the ground itself: the Sub Amici Diving Club of Soverato and Montepaone Lido writes that the seabed between Caminia and Copanello is very white sand, that the rock is covered in a wide variety of concretions, and that rock arches, holes and crevices shelter sea bass, seabream and even grouper. It singles the stretch out for night diving.
The archaeology is the other reason the coast is named. On this shore are the Vasche di Cassiodoro, tanks cut into the rock and fed by the sea. They belong to the Vivarium, the monastery Cassiodorus founded around 544 in the territory of Squillace; in his own writing he describes having hollowed out the inner parts of the mountain and channelled seawater into it so that fish could be kept in what he called a free captivity. Italian Wikipedia notes that the precise localisation of the Vivarium is still argued over, and that Stalettì's tourism is a mixture of archaeology and beaches, so treat the tanks as a shoreline feature to look at rather than as a dive with a published route.
The occurrence record at this pin is thin and shallow-water in character, which fits a rocky shore rather than an offshore reef: barrel jellyfish and fried-egg jellyfish are the most frequently recorded animals, followed by ornate wrasse, damselfish, painted comber, white seabream, salema, wide-eyed flounder, spiny starfish, black sea urchin, cotton-spinner sea cucumber, warty crab, thorny oyster and a set of shallow-rock molluscs. No source publishes a depth, a visibility figure or an entry description for this pin, so none is claimed here.
Copanello and the neighbouring Caminia both have public beaches, and the local club describes the stretch between them as ground it uses. No source publishes a dive entry point, a mooring or a boat route for this specific pin, and the two nearest catalogue pins, Blu 70 at Copanello and Torrazzo at Caminia, sit 380 m and 770 m away on the same coast.
You can reach the site independently.
No marine protected area covers this pin. The regional marine park Baia di Soverato, established by regional decree in 2009 for the seahorse habitat, lies about 8 km south along the same gulf, not here. Archaeological remains on this shore are protected under Italian heritage law.
No source gives a season for this site. Calabria's Ionian coast is dived in the warm half of the year in practice, but nobody publishes month data for Copanello and none is invented here.
An Ionian rocky headland with sand between the rock. Nothing about seasonal visibility or current is published for this pin.
On current: No source publishes depth, visibility or current for this specific pin. The only substantive description of the ground, from the local dive club, is of the Caminia-to-Copanello stretch as a whole, not of a single named route.
No source we could verify publishes a depth for this pin. The local club describes the Caminia-to-Copanello stretch as shallow rocky ground with white sand between the rock, but gives no figures, and there is no published dive profile for this specific entry. Ask the centre running the dive.
The Sub Amici Diving Club describes very white sand, rock heavily covered in concretions, and rock arches, dens and crevices sheltering sea bass, seabream and even grouper. Occurrence records at this pin are shallow-water in character: ornate wrasse, damselfish, painted comber, white seabream, salema, wide-eyed flounder, spiny starfish, sea urchins and a set of rocky-shore molluscs, with barrel and fried-egg jellyfish the most frequently recorded animals of all.
Tanks cut into the rock on the Copanello shore and fed by the sea, associated with the Vivarium that Cassiodorus founded around 544 in the territory of Squillace. He described hollowing out the mountain and channelling seawater in so that fish could be kept in what he called a free captivity. They are a shoreline archaeological feature rather than a dive site with a route, and the exact localisation of the monastery is still debated.
Yes, and it is the activity the local club actually describes for this stretch. Both Caminia and Copanello have public beaches, and the ground between them is white sand and concretion-covered rock with arches and crevices, all of it shallow enough to swim over with a mask.
No marine protected area covers this pin, so there is no permit regime here; the regional marine park Baia di Soverato lies about 8 km south along the gulf. Because no entry point, mooring or route is published for this site, in practice you dive it with one of the Soverato-area clubs that know it.
It is a separate catalogue pin, but the three sit within 800 m of each other on the same short rocky headland between Caminia and Copanello, and the only published description of the ground covers the whole stretch rather than any one of them. Treat them as neighbouring entry points on the same coast rather than three distinct dives.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Rhizostoma pulmo | occasional | 10 |
| Parablennius sanguinolentus | rare | 2 |
| Cotylorhiza tuberculata | rare | 2 |
| Patella caerulea | rare | 2 |
| Pennaria disticha | rare | 2 |
| Thalassoma pavo | rare | 2 |
| Chromis chromis | rare | 1 |
| Serranus scriba | rare | 1 |
| Diplodus sargus | rare | 1 |
| Sarpa salpa | rare | 1 |
| Bothus podas | rare | 1 |
| Aplysia dactylomela | rare | 1 |
| Bolinus brandaris | rare | 1 |
| Hexaplex trunculus | rare | 1 |
| Stramonita haemastoma | rare | 1 |
| Pinctada radiata | rare | 1 |
| Spondylus gaederopus | rare | 1 |
| Sarcotragus spinosulus | rare | 1 |
| Monoplex parthenopeus | rare | 1 |
| Eriphia verrucosa | rare | 1 |
| Marthasterias glacialis | rare | 1 |
| Arbacia lixula | rare | 1 |
| Holothuria (Holothuria) tubulosa | rare | 1 |
| Aidablennius sphynx | rare | 1 |
The rock basins of Copanello, dived as a shallow point-to-point run under the white granite: 10 m at most, and normally over an hour in the water.
A shallow rock-wall traverse along the Stalettì coast between Caminia and Copanello, nowhere deeper than 15 m and built for night diving.
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