News
Diving with… Divers Cabo de Palos, Murcia, Spain
In this ongoing series, we speak with the people who run dive centres, resorts and liveaboards from around the world about their businesses and the diving they have to offer…
What are your names?
Raul Ibañez and Isabel Laguardia
What is the name of your business?
Divers Cabo de Palos
What is your role within the business?
Owners, Skippers, Instructors, Desk guys, cleaning crew… and everything that is needed!
How long has the business operated for?
We opened 30/04/2016, so we are now celebrating our first year.
How long have you dived for and what qualification are you?
We have been diving for almost a decade and we are both PADI Specialty Instructors. Isabel is an IANTD Instructor too.
What is your favourite type of diving?
We enjoy most the naturalist and underwater photography diving. We love to see marine life and try to learn more and more about them with every dive; discover new creatures and watch their behavioral patterns.
If you could tell people one thing about your business (or maybe more!) to make them want to visit you what would it be?
We are located at the gateway of the Marine Preserve Islas Hormigas. It’s a very beautiful thing to come to see: big groupers, huge barracuda banks, dentex, big octopuses and different species are the highlights of the marine preserve. There’s also many small creatures like nudibranch and smaller fishes crowding the marine dive spots.
What is your favourite dive in your location and why?
It’s very difficult to choose, so we are going to cheat a little and choose one dive each!
Raul: My favourite dive spot is the Naranjito Wreck, a cargo ship that sank on April 1946. It lies in navigation position on a 42m sandy bottom with the main deck at 26m deep. This dive spot is one of the best places to see sunfish in spring and summer. There are a lot of different species to watch here because it’s almost at the edge of the marine reserve borders.
Isabel: My favourite dive spot is the Bajo de Dentro dive site in the Marine Reserve. It’s an underwater mountain that reaches up to 5m depth from a rocky and sandy bottom of 33-40m. Full of gigantic groupers, dentex, and moray eels, this spot is one of the best to see big banks of great amberjacks that cloud the place preying on the smaller fish.
What types of diving are available in your location?
Naturalist and underwater photography, wreck diving, deep diving, boat diving, shore diving and night diving.
What do you find most rewarding about your current role?
Everything is challenging and exciting but the thing most rewarding is that, so far, everyone that has visited us has been very happy and pleased with the experience.
What is your favorite underwater creature?
Raul: My favourite underwater creature is the octopus. Their curiosity and behaviour fascinates me. Also, when you find a really small one in a hiding place, normally, if not disturbed or fished, you can watch how the octopus grows and changes their behaviour towards you.
Isabel: My favourite underwater creature is the “boga” (sea bream). Ok, not a boga, but the big schools of “bogas” that just look like cartoons, making shapes and moving all at once when the predators come to hunt. I could spend hours staring at them.
Are there any exciting changes / developments coming up in the near future?
We think that scuba diving is evolving into a more eco friendly industry, trying to protect our marine environment more and more. We hope that we are part of this process and will see the outcome of these changes pretty soon.
As a center what is the biggest problem you face at the moment?
Right now, our biggest problem is that we don’t have all the time we need to do all the amazing stuff we want to do! We have a lot of ideas waiting for some spare time to put them in practice.
Is your center involved in any environmental work?
Yes, we are collaborating with Murcia University in their efforts to achieve a greater understanding of the marine reserve ecosystem, helping on their projects and working with them in some challenging studies. Also, recently we obtained the EcoDiver Trainer title from the ReefCheck Mediterranean organization that will improve their citizen science projects.
How do you see the SCUBA / Freediving / snorkeling industry overall? What changes would you make?
As we mentioned a bit above, we think that this industry is on an evolutionary process to a much more eco friendly industry and a general change towards creating bigger respect for our waters.
What would you say to our visitors to promote the diving you have to offer?
That they will not be disappointed by the life here! Really, we have a lot to offer and as we are a small family business, we try to accommodate our clients every need. Also, safety is our number one priority, so we have one guide for each different level of divers in order to make different dives routes in the same spot depending on the certification level or experience.
Where can our visitors find out more about your business?
On our website you can find a lot of information about our dives, such as maps, videos, photos and more. On our Facebook page you can find day to day information about the dives in the area and lots of photos and videos (and a comic!) On our Youtube Channel you can see all the videos we’ve edited so far and on our TripAdvisor profile you can read how much our guests have enjoyed their visits.
Today we are diving one of the outer reefs from an inflatable. As we reach the bottom, a reef octopus eases its way into the cover of a small crack in the coral while displaying it’s incredible ability to change colour. They are arguably one of the most charismatic of reef dwellers and it is always exciting for me to simply hover and watch. I would have spent longer and waited for it to come and investigate me, but as dive time is limited we wanted to move on and find a turtle.
The waters around Somabay are well protected and hold a rich variety of marine life. The reef edges are thriving colonies of coral and shoaling fish, while nearer the sea bed plenty of wildlife is still to be found.
Then we located the turtles. They are very used to divers and so show little concern when slowly approached. In fact occasionally one will come over to see what you are doing. There is always huge excitement when diving with a turtle. The shear thrill of sharing a moment with another species.
What a fantastic way to finish a wonderful few days diving and I would like to thank SOMABAY, ORCA DIVING and THE BREAKERS for making my stay such a good one.
I had a great time, with diving everyday either on the house reef or on one of the offshore reefs by inflatable or larger day boat. Orca diving provided high quality equipment and facilities while the staff were all very friendly and welcoming. The Breakers was right on the coast with nice rooms, good food and once again friendly staff making the whole trip a real pleasure.
Soma Bay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds.
As well as scuba diving, Somabay caters for many other sports and activities, and so is perfect for families as well as individuals and/or groups. And of course there is always time to lay peacefully on the beach under the Egyptian sun.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
Day three of my trip to Somabay and we were spending the day on the Lady Christina and diving on the wreck of the Salem Express.
Diving wrecks for me is always one of mixed emotions. The excitement of diving a wreck is more than often tempered by the thought of loss of life when she sank. The Salem Express was a passenger ship and a roll-on/roll-off ferry travelling from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt. Most passengers were of poor class travelling home from their holidays while around 150 people were returning home from their pilgrimage to Mecca.
The ship struck a reef and sank within 20 minutes. Passengers were trapped below deck and the ship was filled with fear and panic.
The wreck area is strewn with personal belongings from the crew and passengers such as a transistor radio and a flat iron for clothes. A diver at sometime has put them in a prominent place to be seen.
Tragically only one life boat was launched while the others went down with the ship. More than 600 men, women and children lost their lives here.
It’s a stark reminder that the sea can be unforgiving and so when we dive on such wrecks we should do so with humble regard.
Returning to the surface, shoals of fish are gathered under our boat and seem to be welcoming us back into the light.
Back at the Breakers I sat in the dining area with a beer and a very good meal while my thoughts still remained with the day’s dive on the Salem Express.
Check in for part 3 tomorrow for Jeff’s last day of diving with Somabay on the off-shore reefs looking for turtles.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
-
News3 months agoHone your underwater photography skills with Alphamarine Photography at Red Sea Diving Safari in March
-
News2 months agoCapturing Critters in Lembeh Underwater Photography Workshop 2024: Event Roundup
-
Marine Life & Conservation Blogs2 months agoCreature Feature: Swell Sharks
-
Blogs1 month agoMurex Resorts: Passport to Paradise!
-
Gear News3 months agoBare X-Mission Drysuit: Ideal for Both Technical and Recreational Divers
-
Blogs2 months agoDiver Discovering Whale Skeletons Beneath Ice Judged World’s Best Underwater Photograph
-
Gear Reviews2 months agoGear Review: Oceanic+ Dive Housing for iPhone
-
Blogs3 months agoThe Thrilling Encounter with Tiger Sharks at Beqa Lagoon’s ‘The Colosseum’ with Coral Coast Divers