Nave dei Cavoli
- Trail Conditions: Diving
The site
In the area of Variglioni dei Cavoli, at low depths, a thick seabed of Posidonia alternate with boulders from which a relief with a silhouette resembling the fore of a ship stands out. It is the result of the erosion of granite in aerial environment. The site quickly slopes down in a varied landscape of big boulders and landslide blocks. There are several routes both developing at low depths and reaching the 40m.
Main features
In a very luminous environment, the rocks are covered with a thick blanket of seaweeds of the genus Cystoseira: on it, salema porgies graze and mullets, Mediterranean rainbow wrasses, common wrasses, painted combers, and other small fish look for food.
On the rocks it is possible to meet colonies of big-size madrepores (Cladocora caespitosa). At greater depth and in the less exposed areas, the seaweeds give way to habitats dominated by invertebrates: sponges, yellow cluster anemones, bryozoans, sea fans, and gorgonians. If you carefully observe, you can notice that Alcyonium coralloides covers the skeleton of dead gorgonians, but sometimes it suffocates live specimens. Everywhere you can see groupers and white seabreams. In the ravines, thick shoals of brown meagers sometimes house a few mottled groupers (Mycteroperca rubra).
