Secca del Papa

The dive

Secca del Papa lies just off Punta del Papa, at the eastern end of Tavolara and immediately outside the marine park's Zone A. A sequence of limestone reliefs continues the profile of the headland underwater, rising from a detrital bottom the marine park puts at about 45 m. The shoal is cut in two by a sandy channel: this site is the shallower western half, whose summit the AMP records at 15 m, and the second half (Secca del Papa 2) sits about 60 to 70 m away with its top at 24 m. Each half has its own mooring buoy, and the AMP's 2025 disciplinare lists them as two separate dive points, both in Zone B, at 40 54.920' N / 009 44.818' E and 40 54.916' N / 009 44.859' E respectively.

The dive is worked around the pinnacle rather than along a fixed line, usually in a descending spiral from the buoy. The north-west face is a near-vertical wall carpeted in Paramuricea clavata, and this is the feature the site is known for: alongside the normal red colonies there are yellow and red-and-yellow bicolour fans, which are uncommon elsewhere. The southern side shelves more gently into fissures and overhangs holding moray eels, forkbeard and crustaceans. Below the gorgonian wall the rock runs on into coralligenous ground; Tavolara's own dive centre puts the seabed around the main mass at 50 m and its technical route follows the 50 to 54 m contours, so the bottom is well past recreational depth immediately off the shoal.

Fish are the other reason people dive it. The AMP describes large dusky groupers in numbers with smaller individuals around them, swarms of brown meagre resting in the dips between the reliefs, white and sharpsnout seabream moving through, and big common dentex that let divers approach. Chromis chromis stand in clouds over the peaks and open and reform as amberjack come through. September and October bring tuna, amberjack and bonito past the shoal.

Access is boat-only and, at this site, only through an AMP-authorised dive centre: the Zone B rule lets private divers use the buoys at Molara (Punta Arresto) and I Tre Fratelli (Relitto Omega) and nowhere else. Anchoring is forbidden. Operators quote Advanced Open Water as the minimum and recommend Deep and Nitrox.

• Near-vertical north-west wall covered in Paramuricea clavata, including rare yellow and bicolour colonies
• Summit at 15 to 16 m on a shoal whose base is at 45 to 50 m
• Resident dusky groupers, brown meagre in the dips, large dentex that hold their ground
• September and October passage of amberjack, bonito and tuna
• AMP Zone B mooring buoy: two boats and twelve divers maximum at a time

Conditions

Clear water with good visibility, which operators describe as excellent without giving a figure. Water temperature runs 14 to 15 C from January to March and 20 to 26 C from July to September. The shoal usually has little or no current, but it is unsheltered and the current can pick up.

On current: Sources disagree and we have taken the stronger reading. Scuba Revolution records the current here as weak, rarely moderate; Orso Diving's own briefing for Papa 1 and 2 says the average depth is 25 to 28 m 'with also strong current sometimes'. Plan for a shoal that is usually gentle but can run, on an open-sea mooring with no shelter.

Best months: May, Jun, Sep, Oct