DIVING
where we will take you
Scuba diving in the Protected Marine Area of the Asinara Island is perhaps the activity that more than any other succeeds in making people appreciate the integrity of the submerged fauna and flora and experience direct contact with the sea and its more characteristic species.
It is offer all divers have the opportunity to choose between dives with different degrees of difficulty. To make diving safer and to receive all the correct information about the species and the park regulations, it is necessary to use the service offered by the diving centers authorized by the park.
The diving spots are chosen after various searches and shared through a synergistic action between the Park Authority and the diving operators themselves who, inside of the areas identified, have the task of describing the optimal path for the future recreational excursion. Only when the work is completed and defined, the point is communicated to the bodies in charge of surveillance and authorized to place the mooring buoys.
All dives are characterized by the presence of a rich ichthyofauna: the sea in this area looks like it was 100 years ago. There are frequent, even at very low depth, species that are now rare (and of considerable size) elsewhere, such as Brown Groupers, Saraghi, Corvine, Dentici and Bream.
All'Asinara is it is absolutely forbidden to feed the animals, so as not to change the behavioral habits of the fish.
Below we will give you a descriptive outline of the main dives that you can carry out on the island with us.
The diving spots on the Asinara Island
1 Punta dei Corvi
10 minutes by rubber dinghy from our Diving Punta dei Corvi it is divided into two diving points and is located on a very cracked granite bottom characterized by landslides, Sponges and Bryozoans that alternate with photophilic algae, in relation to the exposure of the walls.
There its main feature is given by the presence of granite panettone that rise from the bottom alternating and creating the ideal habitat for groupers. Further out, after a strip of prairie, a bioclastic sandy plain begins. Between 12 and 18 meters deep there is a granite plateau with Dentici, Barracuda and a huge one Large Brown Grouper population, which make the dive unique and exciting.
2 Punta Sabina
This is the closest point to our center, it is only 5 minutes away by rubber boat but it is among the most beautiful dives on the island due to the presence of an incredible variety of species.
During the dive (maximum depth of 25 meters) it is certain the encounter with different species that have almost disappeared elsewhere and here with an incredible concentration, such as the Brown and Alexandrine Grouper, Corvine, Moray, Lucci and Dentici, all on a beautiful seabed. of granite panettone that form large and spacious dens, all seasoned with an incredible amount of poseidonia. The shoal is so vast that to see it all you have to do at least two dives.
3 Punta Scorno
This is the plus point extreme of the island, become diving site for only a year and of which we can boast the positioning within the authorized points thanks to the commitment of our staff in finding it and preparing it for diving. An extraordinary site for its position, exposed to many winds and often prey to billows and currents make it an incredible outpost of large pelagics such as tunas, amberjacks, swordfish and sharks. Its peculiarity is the presence of imposing granite spiers that rise from the abyss creating an extraordinary morphology, one of a kind. Flush with the integral zone there is no shortage of coarse Groupers, Dotti, Corvine, Lobsters etc.
We consider it a treasure for the whole park.
4 Point them Giorri
5 Punta Long
6 PUNTA BARBAROSSA
These dives are the easiest and most accessible, perfect for exploration with mask and fins. we jealously guard them because they allow us to do a sort of trekking-snorkeling going down even in the small beaches that you meet along the excursion. Here the water seems to have no color and the encounter with the granite gives it a royal pride. In depths included within 10 meters deep, it is possible to observe populations of typical photophilic algae of the well-lit infralittoral, like the Acetabularia Acetabulum, the Padina Pavonica, Dasycladus Vermicularis and Alopteris Scoparia.
From a morphological point of view they are there are isolated reliefs in the shape of inselbergs, very cracked and with channels and fracture lines. The frequent ravines are rich of sponges and other animals encrusting, while in the large sandy areas the massive is unbelievable presence of prairie in Poseidonia O ceanica with all associated species (Stars, Hedgehogs, Octopuses and various species of wrasse and sparids). It is a dive that we recommend above all to less experienced divers but also to those who, when winds blow from the western quadrants, do not want to give up to a dive in the Asinara sea.
7 Punta Pedra Bianca
The site takes its name from the presence of a white rock massif. It straddles a fault that marks the transition from schists to granite.
Like all diving spots, it is marked by a submerged buoy, placed on a depth of 14 m, offers numerous routes with scenarios of great spectacle, with its canyons and huge blocks. The vertical walls and passages between the boulders, roofs and tunnels make it a really fun dive.
The maximum depth is around 35 m and the path ends in the shallows close to the rock.
The dive is characterized by large sheer walls and by large landslides of rounded blocks that degrade close to long outcrops of rock, which continue the profile of the coastal shale.
Here too is the shape and location of the rocks to determine the coverage: Brown and Red Algae in the exposed areas and Sponges and Bryozoans in the shaded areas.
On the debris areas we find the Mullets, while Groupers and Corvines swim in the shelter of the stacked blocks. Close to the central islet in front of the On the wall there are small nudibranchs and the shallower area is no less interesting, both for the well-lit vertical walls, and for the possibility of observing swarms of Barracudas, Tanute and Saraghi that are stationed in mid-water and can be easily approached .
8 Punta Tumbarino
At about 200 meters from the homonymous point, the site is located near a shoal formed by large boulders that from the depth they reach up to 5 m from the surface. From the first meters the seabed slopes down between large rocky blocks to a depth of about 40 m, where you meet a plain with scattered boulders. The rocks form considerable differences in height, with channels slits and cavities that lend themselves to different paths.
The dark rocks are covered with a dense intertwining of algae with a considerable variety of species: the Cistoseire, the Dictiotali and the Sargassi prevail. In the substrate the presence of Red Algae is evident and even more conspicuous, the thalli of the Duby seaweed with a bright orange-yellow color. There is no shortage of large Groupers and Corvines that swim among the rocks, often letting themselves be approached.
On the bottom, at about 40 m, the castanets (Pinna Nobilis) stand out and on the surrounding rocks the ramifications of the Axinelle (Axinella Polypoides), both protected species.
The large boulders form impressive walls and the change in coverage is evident when the exposure of the rock reduces the lighting. This site, like all points of the "mare di fuori", is often prey to the Ponente and Mistral winds that sweep and sometimes make it inaccessible. Is exactly this last factor that makes Tumbarino a place full of life.
9 Punta Agnadda
The toponymy of this name derives from the local dialect, agnadda stands for birth. This beautiful tip is in fact characterized by a myriad of islets as if they had been given birth from the overhanging rocky coast.
The submerged buoy appears close to the rock, on which the Zone A signal is located and on a depth of 12 m. The route follows the western part of the rock, characterized by large stacked boulders which, after having gone around them with a spiral path (which reaches a maximum depth of about 28 m), ends the tour on the surface. Among the boulders there are accumulations of pebbles and in some places the wall becomes vertical.
To characterize the route is first of all the majesty of the landscape that it is enhanced by the cuts of light in the passages between the large blocks and the walls. The rock is covered with Brown Algae; Red Algae grow in the substrate, but sometimes there are fronds of Alga Gorgonia exposed. Along the way there are also large groupers and groups of Corvine. Colonies of Yellow Eunicella grow at the base of the boulders and in the bottlenecks, where they are favored by currents. In the shallower areas, more exposed to waves and currents, the elongata coralline alga grows.
10 E 11 Punta Sa Nave and the Candlesticks
They are easy dives that have the possibility of programming different itineraries, some simple and included within -18 meters and others more demanding, up to almost 40 meters deep, where it is easy to meet big ones Groupers and Lobsters. More widely it is present an important landslide of large blocks, at the foot of which concretions and calcareous algae can be seen, while deeper the sandy plain begins with coastal debris.
Especially for the candlesticks, it is possible to make beautiful snorkeling excursions starting from the ground and making beautiful paths in the shallows between the islets, where the play of light that stands out the seabed and the incredible amount of fauna and flora.
12 Punta Grabara
An easy route involving the submerged cliffs of metamorphic rock. The seabed is characterized by various shapes: tunnels, large landslides, large rounded blocks and caves, with benthic flora and fauna that are affected by open sea conditions. Among the most frequent species in the den: Octopuses, Lobsters, Moray eels, Conger eels and in a free environment Dentici and Amberjacks.
13 Punta Trabuccato
Another dive is the one in the vicinity of Punta Trabuccato, very particular because it is carried out on a rocky shoal located inside an extremely dense prairie of Poseidonia, which for the richness in benthic species (mostly algae and invertebrates), acts as a pole of attraction for various pelagic species. It is not uncommon to meet snappers, sea bream and sea pike in search of their prey.
Further on the ground we have prepared another point on a beautiful shoal that allows us to do both the open waters of the OW courses and above all the beautiful snorkeling trips seen and considered the incredible amount of Bream, Corvine, Grouper and also archaic finds. like amphorae that probably belonged to to a ship that sank right near the tip.
All on a depth of up to 5 meters.
14 Tip of the Turk
This is one of the most recent dives and only from this year it will be possible to moor on the dedicated buoy.
After various patrols we found an incredible quantity of shards of Roman amphorae and after a survey, in collaboration with the underwater group of the Superintendence of the Archaeological Heritage of Sassari, the presence of a massive cargo belonging to a Roman ship has been ascertained.
The dive is similar to that of the opposite tip of Sabina, but is embellished by the presence of amphorae.
The seabed is around - 14 meters for a maximum depth of 25 meters.
It is easy to meet large snappers, corvines, groupers, white bream and numerous shoals of Barracudas. The seabed is granite and the scenery it creates is very suggestive.
CALA D'OLIVA DIVING CENTER
