SeaLogItaly
An uninhabited red-granite islet off Teulada in south-west Sardinia, dived from a boat and hemmed in by a live military range.
These coordinates land on Isola Rossa in the comune di Teulada, at the south-western corner of Sardinia. It is worth saying plainly, because Sardinia has several Isola Rossa: this is not the resort of the same name at Trinita d'Agultu in the north, nor anything near Tavolara. It is a small uninhabited islet of reddish granite, 43 m at its highest point, with a freshwater spring and the perimeter walls of an early-1900s tuna-processing building still standing.
The islet is a seabird colony, with Audouin's gull and Scopoli's shearwater nesting on it, and the surrounding seabed is colonised by Posidonia oceanica meadows. It lies inside the Natura 2000 site ITB040024 'Isola Rossa e Capo Teulada', 3,715 ha, most of whose land is military property and closed.
That military presence is the fact that governs the dive. The Capo Teulada firing range occupies the water immediately west: inside the polygon set by Ordinanza 132/2021 of the Cagliari Capitaneria di Porto, anchoring, scuba diving and fishing are permanently prohibited because of unexploded ordnance on the bottom. The ordinance's eastern boundary runs up to Punta Pirastu, just west of the island, so the island itself reads as outside the interdicted polygon; but it sits on the line, and total closures are imposed during exercises. Check the current Capitaneria ordinance before planning anything here.
We deliberately publish no depth, current, visibility or certification figure for this site. No diving centre in the area publishes a site sheet for Isola Rossa. Operators from Chia and Sant'Antioco do run guided boat dives over the Chia-Pula-Cala Piombo-Capo Teulada stretch, and one has posted underwater footage tagged at Isola Rossa, so the site is dived commercially; but the numbers circulating on dive directories are unsourced, and inventing them here would be worse than leaving them blank. OBIS records for the surrounding water are standard western Mediterranean rocky-reef and seagrass fauna: ornate wrasse, salema, spiny lobster, purple sea urchin, dusky grouper, brown meagre, moray, and notably the fan mussel Pinna nobilis, a protected species that has been devastated across the Mediterranean since 2016.
Boat only. The islet is uninhabited and lies roughly a nautical mile off the Teulada coast; landing on the beaches and rocks inside the range perimeter is forbidden. Diving is arranged through operators working the Chia to Capo Teulada stretch.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
The waters immediately west, inside the Capo Teulada range polygon, are permanently closed to anchoring, diving and fishing. During firing exercises the Capitaneria imposes wider temporary closures. Verify the current ordinance before travelling.
Capitaneria di Porto di Cagliari Ordinanza n. 132 of 12 August 2021 permanently prohibits anchoring, scuba diving and fishing inside the polygon off the Capo Teulada military range because of possible unexploded ordnance, allows transit navigation, and forbids landing on beaches and rocks inside the range perimeter; total closures apply during exercises. The eastern boundary of that polygon runs to Punta Pirastu, immediately west of Isola Rossa, so the island reads as just outside it, but the reading is geometric and should be confirmed against the ordinance in force. Waters west of Capo Teulada fall under the Sant'Antioco maritime office. The site is also inside Natura 2000 ZSC ITB040024; there is no Area Marina Protetta here.
Granite islet with Posidonia oceanica meadows on the surrounding bottom. No operator publishes a depth range, current or visibility figure for the site, so none is recorded here.
On current: No sourced current figure exists for this site. Figures circulating on dive directories are unattributed and are not reproduced here.
The one in the comune di Teulada, at the south-western tip of Sardinia, at roughly 38 54 53 N / 8 42 59 E. Sardinia has several places called Isola Rossa; this is not the resort at Trinita d'Agultu in the north. It is an uninhabited red-granite islet 43 m high, with a freshwater spring and the ruins of an early-1900s tuna-processing building.
The range matters. Ordinanza 132/2021 of the Cagliari Capitaneria di Porto permanently prohibits anchoring, diving and fishing inside the polygon off the Capo Teulada military range because of unexploded ordnance on the bottom. That polygon's eastern boundary runs to Punta Pirastu, just west of Isola Rossa, so the island reads as outside it. Because the island sits on the line and exercises trigger wider temporary closures, check the ordinance in force before planning a dive.
We do not know, and we would rather say so. No diving centre in the area publishes a site sheet for Isola Rossa with a depth range. The figures that circulate on dive directories are unattributed, so we have left the field blank instead of copying them.
No. It is an uninhabited islet roughly a nautical mile offshore, so access is by boat, and landing on beaches and rocks inside the range perimeter is forbidden in any case.
Operators working the Chia, Pula, Cala Piombo and Capo Teulada stretch run guided boat dives in this area, and one has posted underwater footage tagged at Isola Rossa, so the site is dived commercially. No centre publishes it as a named itinerary, so ask directly when booking.
Reddish granite above and below water, with Posidonia oceanica meadows on the surrounding seabed and a seabird colony of Audouin's gull and Scopoli's shearwater on the islet itself. Occurrence records for the surrounding water are standard western Mediterranean rocky-reef and seagrass species, including the protected fan mussel Pinna nobilis.
Not an Area Marina Protetta. It falls inside the Natura 2000 site ITB040024 'Isola Rossa e Capo Teulada', 3,715 ha, most of whose land is military property and closed to access. The binding restrictions in the water come from the Capitaneria's ordinance, not from a park regulation.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Pelagia noctiluca | occasional | 19 |
| Thalassoma pavo | occasional | 11 |
| Sarpa salpa | occasional | 7 |
| Palinurus elephas | occasional | 6 |
| Paracentrotus lividus | occasional | 6 |
| Oblada melanurus | occasional | 6 |
| Gobius cobitis | occasional | 5 |
| Lithognathus mormyrus | occasional | 5 |
| Symphodus roissali | rare | 4 |
| Diplodus sargus | rare | 4 |
| Pinna nobilis | rare | 4 |
| Epinephelus marginatus | rare | 4 |
| Serranus scriba | rare | 3 |
| Diplodus vulgaris | rare | 3 |
| Cotylorhiza tuberculata | rare | 3 |
| Rhizostoma pulmo | rare | 3 |
| Symphodus tinca | rare | 3 |
| Tripterygion tripteronotum | rare | 3 |
| Gobius incognitus | rare | 3 |
| Parablennius sanguinolentus | rare | 3 |
| Muraena helena | rare | 3 |
| Coris julis | rare | 3 |
| Sciaena umbra | rare | 3 |
| Scorpaena maderensis | rare | 2 |
| Phorcus articulatus | rare | 2 |
| Bothus podas | rare | 2 |
| Percnon gibbesi | rare | 2 |
| Gobius paganellus | rare | 2 |
| Mullus surmuletus | rare | 2 |
| Cerastoderma glaucum | rare | 2 |
| Sepia officinalis | rare | 1 |
| Clibanarius erythropus | rare | 1 |
| Dardanus arrosor | rare | 1 |
| Dardanus calidus | rare | 1 |
| Pachygrapsus marmoratus | rare | 1 |
| Velella velella | rare | 1 |
| Astropecten bispinosus | rare | 1 |
| Arbacia lixula | rare | 1 |
| Echinaster (Echinaster) sepositus | rare | 1 |
| Conger conger | rare | 1 |
| Belone belone | rare | 1 |
| Aphanius fasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Mugil cephalus | rare | 1 |
| Oedalechilus labeo | rare | 1 |
| Chromis chromis | rare | 1 |
| Diplodus annularis | rare | 1 |
| Diplodus puntazzo | rare | 1 |
| Scorpaena porcus | rare | 1 |
| Phyllorhiza punctata | rare | 1 |
| Aplysia dactylomela | rare | 1 |
| Bursatella leachii | rare | 1 |
| Galeodea echinophora | rare | 1 |
| Bittium reticulatum | rare | 1 |
| Mactra stultorum | rare | 1 |
| Stramonita haemastoma | rare | 1 |
| Neverita josephinia | rare | 1 |
| Patella caerulea | rare | 1 |
| Aidablennius sphynx | rare | 1 |
| Dicentrarchus labrax | rare | 1 |
| Pomatoschistus marmoratus | rare | 1 |
The American armed tug LT 221, mined in October 1944 and lying on her starboard side on sand at 49 m in the Gulf of Cagliari.
The stern half of a 1899 tanker, mined in 1943, sitting upright on sand at 42 m in the Gulf of Cagliari.
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