Scuba diving in the marine Park in Pianosa - Buoy SP3

Scuba diving here starts off near a large, sub vertical group of carbonate rocks consisting of steps and small terracings at different levels.

You can plan the route you follow by swimming down to the foot of the rocks, at a depth of 40 m, and swim north-westwards or south-westwards, then swim back up to the tip that is at a depth of approximately 4 m. This route is important from both a scientific and a learning point of view because it enables you to view the different types of sciaphilic algae (from the foot to a depth of 22 m) that grow in the areas where there is little light and photophilic ones (from a depth of 25 m to the surface of the water) that grow in the areas that get more sunlight simply because they are nearer the surface.

Swim back towards the top and once you get to a depth of 18 m you will see many parazoanthus axinellae growing out of the cracks in the rocks.

Of all the sandanks to be seen, the best is probably this one because inside it is completely covered in oceanic posidonia at a depth of between 2 and 10 metres while on the outside it grows at a depth of more than 40 metres.

Thanks to both the position and the morphology of the base the strong>amount of different species of fish you can see here is unbelievable: hundreds of barracudas that live around the sanbank and even allow you to get near them; magnificent groupers peep out from the cracks and seem to want you to photograph them both in their dens and amongst the Posidonia; needless to say there are also numerous snappers and amberjacks out on the hunt for food.

During the summer there are also many different types of manta rays to be seen in the area.