Provence France Dive Sites Map
4 dive sites, 13 photos
Click the map to enable scroll-wheel zoom. Switch on “Water depth shading” and click anywhere for the approximate depth, “Seafloor relief” for sonar-surveyed areas, or “Nautical marks” (zoom in) for harbours, wrecks, buoys and lights. Depth data (GEBCO grid of roughly 450 m; GMRT only where ships have surveyed) and nautical marks (OpenSeaMap) are for orientation only, not for navigation or dive planning. Pin positions mark the start of the dive (boat anchor or entry point), not the exact spot underwater. Zoom out to see dive sites of other locations: grey pins are dive sites without photos, flags are dive centers. Pale pins show an approximate position (nearby dive center or dive area).
Diving Provence
The Mediterranean coast of Provence offers a very different kind of diving from the tropical reefs featured elsewhere on ReefColors. Rocky coastlines, steep walls, caves, Posidonia meadows, and coralligenous communities provide habitats for a remarkably diverse Mediterranean marine life.
Some of my dives were around Saint-Tropez, while others took me to the Îles d'Hyères, in particular Port-Cros and Porquerolles. The islands are part of the Port-Cros National Park, one of the oldest protected marine areas in the Mediterranean. The long-term protection is particularly noticeable underwater: large brown groupers, moray eels, conger eels, octopuses, barracudas, wrasses, breams, and numerous smaller invertebrates can be encountered. Rocky walls and overhangs are covered with sponges, coralline algae and other sessile organisms, while Posidonia meadows occupy the shallower areas.
Port-Cros is probably the most interesting area I visited. The small rocky Îlot de la Gabinière and the southern coast of the island are particularly well known for their steep underwater formations and abundant fish life. Currents can occur, and some sites reach considerable depths. Porquerolles offers a somewhat different combination of rocky reefs, walls and deeper sites, as well as several famous wrecks such as the Donator and Le Grec.
Diving in the protected marine core areas of Port-Cros and Porquerolles is regulated and currently requires an individual authorization, with dives recorded through the park's system. The regulations are intended to limit the impact of diving and protect the particularly sensitive marine habitats.