Secca di Santa Caterina
- Trail Conditions: Diving
- Interest: Marine Wildlife
- Required license: 2' livello
- Depth: - 30 m
The site
An iron cardinal mark marks the large granite relief forming the shoal. It is a complex series of granite spurs which, from a minimum depth of about 12m slopes down to reach over 30m of depth. Fissured bastions rich in tafoni alternate with landslides consisting in huge rounded blocks, offering a great variety of routes along which it is also possible to observe two modern anchors and a lead stock dating back to the Roman Age.
Main features
The shoal is characterized by the mighty granite setting where thick shoals of damselfish, picarels, and blotched picarels live. The presence of small fish attracts predators like greater amberjacks, Atlantic bonitos, and dentexes forcing their preys to darts and to form groups.
The show is enriched by the water clearness and the color of the shady areas of the boulders, where thick carpets of yellow cluster anemones alternate with colored sponges. White seabreams and big gilt-headed breams move among the landslides, while the groupers curiously peep out together with mottled groupers (Mycteroperca rubra). There are big-size specimens you can easily approach.
