philworrall
26-05-04, 13:11
Got this from UK-Diving - hope it helps
The Maltese Islands are situated in the southern central Mediterranean 95km (60 miles) south of Sicily and only a three-hour flight from Britain. Collectively known as Malta, the three islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino have a population of 350,000, 98 per cent of whom follow the Catholic faith. The islands are incredibly rich in history, boasting the oldest standing ruins in Europe (3,400 BC) at Mnajdra Temple on Malta and Ggantija on Gozo.
Subject to many conquests over the years - by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish and French - the islands were ruled for more than 200 years by the Knights of St John, who left their mark in the form of the massively fortified town of Valletta, numerous fabulous cathedrals and a system of forts in strategic positions. During the Second World War, the islands were once more under siege, and in 1942 the people of Malta were awarded the George Cross for their outstanding bravery.
Now fully independent, the islanders speak a curious mixture of Arabic and Latin, known as Malti. English is spoken everywhere, however, and German in most hotels and dive centres.
Once the top overseas diving destination for Brits, Malta used to provide many with their first taste of (semi) tropical diving. Compared to our northern climes, the Mediterranean was seen as a great place to explore, with exceptionally clear and warm water. But then it fell out of favour. Scare stories of massive pollution, no fish, devastated corals and poor visibility throughout the Mediterranean, combined with the ready availability of diving in the Red Sea, resulted in a decline in diver numbers.
Now, I'm delighted to say, Malta appears to have weathered the storm and is at last seeing a resurgence in popularity. Unlike many other areas of the Mediterranean, Malta still provides first-class diving, with stunning topography, varied marine life and good visibility. Increasing numbers of British divers are coming to realise this - and that the islands offer a cheap and more accessible alternative to the Red Sea. I, for one, would have no problem recommending Malta as a great destination, whether you're a learner, a more experienced diver or a marine photographer.
There are around 25 registered dive centres on the islands which, for the most part, are very professional with many years' experience. All have weekly training courses. In addition, diving is remarkably cheap: several dive centres can offer amazing weekly packages for less than £95, to include all accommodation and unlimited diving. Getting there won't break the bank either, with affordable flights from all over the UK, while eating out costs at least 30 per cent less than in Britain and is generally of a high standard.
As for the diving itself, Malta has some of the most scenic sites I have ever encountered, with wonderful walls, spectacular natural archways, caves, caverns and wrecks. Fish life is much more profuse than I'd been led to believe, with huge shoals of damselfish, bream, bogue and smelt at most sites and a resident school of barracuda at San Dimitri Point on Gozo. Night diving is very popular and most dive centres offer several trips a week.
There have been problems in the past with visiting divers applying for dive permits (which allow you to dive without a Maltese-registered instructor) and letting the lure of going deep override their commonsense. The vast number of underwater caves and caverns have claimed their fair share of victims, too. As a result, it's recommended that all visitors dive only with a qualified guide who knows the area well.
Malta is the largest of the three islands, at 27km (17 miles) long by 14km (9 miles) wide. The diving is predominantly in three main areas: north of the Marfa ridge; Qawra to Meliena; and, to a lesser extent, Valletta Harbour and a few isolated sites on the south and east coasts.
Most of the diving can be done from the shore and the majority of sites have fairly easy access, but a number are only for the extremely energetic, with long walks down steep cliffs. There are also some very deep wrecks, such as HMS Stubborn and HMS Southwold, which are not described here as they're considered too deep for the average sport diver on holiday.
The caves and cliffs to the south-west are spectacular and the tiny island of Filfla - once used for target practice during the war, now a nature reserve - is still relatively unexplored (permits are needed). The surrounding waters are littered with armaments, but one or two dive centres, including the local British Sub-Aqua Club branch, regularly visit the waters around the island.
North of the Marfa Ridge
Cirkewwa, or Marfa Point as it's more commonly known, is a mecca both for dive training and for more experienced divers keen to visit the wreck of the tugboat Rozi. At the time of writing, however, major redevelopment work is scheduled for the area around the ferry port, with an extension being made to the existing harbour, and there's a possibility that several of the most popular sites may be lost to divers. It will probably take several years to complete the work, so enjoy the diving here while you can.
Marfa Point has six sites, each with its own characteristics: a natural arch to the north of the ferry pier, the Rozi, the training pool, the Madonna statue, the chimney and Paradise Bay.
MALTESE DIVING SITES
1 Cirkewwa Arch
Seldom dived, as most divers tend never to go beyond the Rozi, this archway is located along the edge of the protective reef and set back from the drop-off. The arch is the crowning glory of the dive as the rest of the reef is made up of a thick algae fuzz and posidonia beds.
2 The Rozi
Accessed from the shore by an old iron pier, the Rozi was sunk deliberately in 1992 as an attraction for tourists taking a submarine trip around the area. Sadly, the trips have stopped due to escalating costs, but this wonderful little tugboat sits perfectly upright on a sandy bottom inside a rocky amphitheatre, with the level deck at 30m. The ship is slowly being colonised and all areas are accessible. Surrounding the ship are thousands of fish, with chromis, bream and sand smelt the predominant species. Huge anemones (Condylactis aurantica) cover the flat sandy sea-bed around the wreck.
3 The Madonna
This statue of the Virgin Mary was donated, and placed by the Amphibians Diving Club. It sits in a small natural cavern in 18m of water. As you continue out towards the point from the Madonna, you'll come to some attractive overhangs covered in golden zoanthids (Parazoanthus axinellae). These lead to a largish swim-through, which can be negotiated all the way through the headland.
4 The Training Pool
Access is via a concrete ramp down to the water. A short swim takes you into the first of two small valleys between the rocky reefs where much of the dive training takes place. If you continue over to your left and then out to sea, you'll reach the edge of the wall with a large overhanging shelf.
5 The Chimney
Further round to the left beyond the first headland you'll come across a fissure where you can find moray eels (Muraena helena) and coral shrimps (Stenopus spinosus). The fissure runs towards a large cavern with four narrow exits, which is very photogenic. The site is great for night dives and quite safe.
6 Paradise Bay
You'll need to take a hike over very sharp fossilised rock south of the car-park before you can start this dive, which goes around the headland to the north and follows the edge of the wall. The shallows are always filled with thousands of juvenile fish, but beware of fishermen who feed them to attract them closer to their bait. Divers should keep clear of all fishing areas.
QAWRA TO MELLIEHA
7 Dragonnara Cave (Coral Grotto/ L'Ahrax Point)
This is a popular dive with photographers as there are some beautiful scenic views looking out to sea from inside the caverns. The boat anchors in around 10m and from there it's a short swim to the outside cavern. A tunnel at 5 to 7m leads to a mini inland sea which is open to the sky. Being almost completely land-locked, the water is often a few degrees warmer than outside, resulting in increased coral growth with lots of golden cup corals (Astroides calycularis), false coral (Myriapora truncata) and many different types of tubeworm and starfish.
8 Qawra Reef
Here, the dive boat can anchor on the reef lip in around 12m. Dropping over the algae-covered rocks, you'll see there are five big caves to explore, all indented about 10 to 12m into the rocky wall. The caverns are safe for divers and the walls are covered in the sea rose algae Pseudolithophyllum expansum) and the sea lace bryozoan (Sertella septentrionalis). The marine goldfish (Anthia anthias), considered quite rare around the islands, can be found here. Valletta Harbour Once the scene of massive aerial bombardments during the Second World War, Valletta Harbour is host to a large number of wrecks, most of which are off-limits due to their location in major shipping lanes. Two of them, however, HMS Maori and the barge Carolito, are perfect for exploration.
9 Barge Carolita (The Coral)
Probably mistaken for a submarine, the Carolita barge was struck in her stern by a torpedo on the night of April 21, 1942. She sank immediately and now rests facing up a steep, silty slope, her bow at 6m, her stern at 22m. The deck is flat and covered in silt and there are two hatches up front with restricted access. The engine room can be reached from beneath the bridge or in through the damaged stern.
10 HMS Maori
Launched in 1937, HMS Maori saw considerable action in the Norwegian Campaign, Atlantic convoys and the Mediterranean. On the night of February 12, 1942, she received a direct hit into her engine room and sank. Declared a hazard to navigation, she was subsequently 'wrecked' and her guns removed. Part of the raised bridge is still there and, from the rear, divers are able to gain relatively safe and easy access to her remains with exit through the large holes in her starboard side. There are still some live shells sticking out of the wreckage and mud, which should not be touched.
SOUTH EAST COAST
11 Blenheim Bomber
Approximately 800m due east of Xorb Il-Ghagin, off south-east Malta, in a depth of 42m, the remains of this aircraft are now on the list of 'essential things to see' for the experienced diver. The engine and wings are intact, but the foresection of the fuselage has been smashed off and now lies several metres in front of the main part of the wreckage. Most of the Maltese operators visit this site.
12 Delimara Point
This very exposed site is at the extreme south-east of Malta, around the flat wedge-shaped rock off the headland. A popular dive, as the visibility is often the clearest of anywhere around the islands, the wall drops down to around 12m. Here you should be able to find a vertical fissure, which drops to the sea-bed among some huge algae-covered boulders. 2
Gozo is one of the most popular diving destinations in the Mediterranean. At just over a quarter the size of Malta, the island is 15km long by 7km at its widest point and has a total of 43km of coastline. The diving is incredibly scenic with some of the most dramatic vertical cliff faces, natural arches and caves to be found anywhere in the world.
Most of the diving is from the shore and several of the more popular sheltered sites are prey to rainwater run-off. This can reduce the underwater visibility to nil, due to the suspended particulate washed down from the limestone hills and quarries. The north shore from Marsalforn to the Ghasri Valley has deep water directly off the limestone shore, so visibility is generally good, but by far the best diving in all of the archipelago is at Dwejra Point.
To the south-west and south of Gozo, the land mass rears up vertically, with few entry points except at Xlendi Bay. From St Andrew's Divers Cove, much of the coastline is visited by dive boat as it's the only way to reach the caves below, particularly towards the Ta Cenc Cliffs, which are quite incredible.
GOZO DIVE SITES
Dwejra Point
This area of western Gozo has several fantastic sites, a number of which you'll want to return to time after time. Here, divers can visit two of the natural wonders of the Mediterranean, the gigantic natural arch known as the Azure Window, and the Inland Sea, a sheltered lagoon cut by an awesome fissure running through the headland.
1 Fungus Rock
This massive lump of limestone, which can be reached only by boat, has a hole running through the northern part of it. During the time of the Knights of St John, a cable-car operated between the rock and the mainland, enabling the Knights to collect a rare fungus (Cynomorium coccineum), which is effective against dysentery. Underwater, the scenery is as dramatic as above, with vertical walls, fissures, gullies and caverns.
2 Crocodile Rock
Dive boats anchor on the top of the rocky reef between Crocodile Rock and the shore, where the depth is around 7m. The rock platform here is deeply grooved and covered in several species of marine algae. Following the reef to the southern edge of the rock, there is a natural amphitheatre with near vertical walls. Continue around to the right and you'll find a number of deeply incised fissures, where the bottom of the wall gives way to a steeply sloping sea-bed of huge algae-covered boulders.
3 Coral Cave
This is a cave with a huge semi-circular opening, a sandy bottom and a tumble of boulders beside the entrance. The silty sea-bed slopes up to around 21m, where large, burrowing anemones (Cerianthus membranaceus) can be found. Turning right, or to the north, you will then come to a vertical wall which drops to 30m. Exit is via the Blue Hole.
4 The Blue Hole and The Chimney
The Blue Hole is a natural rock formation carved out over the centuries by the action of the wind and water. Offering a sheltered entry, the site has a huge, almost square archway covered in golden cup corals (Parazoanthus axinellae). The large cave at the bottom of the hole is also worth exploring. This dive leads you round to the left, or west, until you reach a fissure in the near vertical wall. Follow the fissure in and it will lead you into a chimney, which rises up through the reef and has two exit points.
5 Azure Window
Looking up from the depths to the huge arch above the surface, you can see how this site got its name. Large boulders lie below the archway where they've fallen from above (which is somewhat disconcerting), but the marine life is prolific and the rocky surfaces are covered in spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis) and tiny tubeworms (Bispira vulticornis). It's incredibly scenic here and divers tend to travel around the headland and back to the Blue Hole, which is the best entry and exit point.
6 Inland Sea
This site is often spoiled by rainwater run-off from the quarries in the hills, but when conditions are perfect it's a fantastic dive through a narrow canyon that stretches 80m through the headland to open water beyond. The view of the deep blue ocean is spectacular. Around the corner, to both the right and the left, further vertical fissures in the cliff face can be explored at all levels.
7 San Dimitri Point
Just south of the point, the most westerly tip of Gozo, a shallow reef juts out from a sheltered spike off the headland. Here a dive boat can anchor in 6m and the reef top is perfect for completing any timed safety stops at the end of your dive. Head out due west in open water and you'll come across some massive shoals of barracuda (Sphyraena sphyraena), then turn around and come back into the wall as it curves around to the south.
8 The Blue Dome (Ghasri Valley/The Cathedral Cave)
The dive here goes from the right-hand side of the steeply sloping wall at the mouth of the Ghasri Valley and is where I photographed my first seahorse (Hippocampus ramulosus) in Malta. However, the best part of the dive is the cave itself. Entry is only 5m below the surface and leads you through to a huge dome where you can surface and have a chat with your buddy. The sea-bed is covered in massive boulders and the view to the outside 'blue' of the ocean is breathtaking.
9 Reqqa Point
Depending on the surge, access is either to the right or left of the headland, but the dive is conducted by swimming around the headland to the left. The wall here is near vertical in many places and is cut by numerous fissures, caves and crevices. On the submarine section of the headland there are two chimneys or holes, which drop down through the wall. To the right of the sheltered inlet a chimney plunges through the reef from 6 to 16m, and on the headland you'll find another, much deeper chimney.
10 Twin Arches (Marsalforn Reef)
An extended rocky headland with two large archways. The first starts at 20m and directly underneath is the second, which stretches to the sea-bed at 45m. The undersides of the arches are covered in small colourful sponges and golden cup corals (Astroides calycularis) and the fish life is prolific.
11 Fessej Rock (Black Rock)
Fessej Rock rises about 12m above the water and plunges 50m below into a tumble of huge boulders. Boats can anchor by placing a chain around a small rocky outcrop close to the surface. Essentially the dive is around the rock, descending and then ascending in a spiral to bring you back to the boat's mooring. Barracuda, tuna and grouper, as well as octopus and lobster, can be found on this dive. This site is one of the handful around the islands to which the government restricts access primarily to conserve archaeological treasures. Permission can be granted but it is often laborious to achieve. Your dive centre will provide up-to-date information.
12 Mgarr Ix-Xini
This is a very popular dive with photographers due to the huge variety of fish species, including flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans), stargazers (Uranoscopus scaber), picarel (Spicara flexuosa) and seahorses (Hippocampus ramulosus). There is also an interesting cave about 100 along the right-hand wall at 14m, which travels quite far in and has a sharp, narrow twist to the left at the end. The sheltered valley and shallow depths make this a very popular site for night dives.
13 Dawra tas-Sanap
A personal favourite, this is a deep cave and natural arch eroded from the surrounding cliffs. At the bottom of the arch are some massive boulders covered in colourful sponges. Swimming south from here at around 20m, you'll find the massive semi-circular cavern. The wall becomes vertical once more as you swim around to the bay on your left and the water becomes much shallower, offering easy pick-up by the dive boat.
14 Xlendi Cave and Reef
The dive starts with a swim through a tunnel that is only 2m deep in Xlendi Bay and 6m on the other side. From here, you dive to the left, to the outer, gentle drop-off, and around the reef which extends underwater from the headland. Part of this forms a pinnacle which should be avoided by boats. The cave is more popular at night, as it's a pleasant easy dive in shallow water.
there is more if you want
HTH
cheers
Following the advice I found time for a bit of snorkelling and am posting a few pictures below. Grateful for IDs on a couple of the critters I haven't named already.
Chromis (Chromis chromis) - Inland Sea, Gozo
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Chromis%20-%20Inland%20Sea,%20Gozo.JPG
Cassiopeia Jellyfish (Cothyloriza tubercolata) - Crystal Bay, Comino
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Jellyfish%20-%20Crystal%20Lagoon,%20Comino.JPG
Mauve Jellyfish (Pelagia noctiluca - id by Ahoy) - Ramla Bay, Gozo
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Jellyfish%20-%20Ramla%20Bay,%20Gozo.JPG
Golden Cup Corals (Astroides calycularis) and coralline - Blue Hole, Gozo
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Cup%20corals%20-%20Blue%20Hole,%20Gozo.JPG
Two different colour forms of the Ornate Wrasse (Thalassoma pavo) - Ramla Bay, Gozo
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Ornate%20Wrasse%20-%20Ramla%20Bay,%20Gozo.JPG
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Turkish%20Wrasse%20-%20Ramla%20Bay,%20Gozo.JPG
School of bream (I think) - Blue Hole, Gozo
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Unknown%20school%20-%20Blue%20Hole,%20Gozo.JPG
Salema sea bream (Sarpa salpa) - Ramla Bay, Gozo
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Salema%20Sea%20Bream%20-%20Ramla%20Bay,%20Gozo.JPG
And a school of something else (bream again?) - Ramla Bay, Gozo
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Unknown%20school%20-%20Ramla%20Bay,%20Gozo.JPG
Cheers
Keith
I did my first Blue Water dives out there with a BSAC Dive Centre called Dive Deep Blue. Probably not the cheapest of dive centres, but I have to say the level of service they offered was second to none. Dive guide to diver ratio was either 1:1 or 1:2 rather than a whole herd of divers following a guide! They were English too. I think they operated out of Buggiba, (I think where I was staying was at St.Pauls Bay maybe, can't remember, it was a whole year ago!)
If you end up staying in the Buggiba area it might be worth looking them up, even if you're just snorkelling as the majority of diving they did was shore based I'd imagine they could work something out that when they went cross island to do some dives you could tag along and snorkle. I dived the area near the gozo ferry and would agree it's an awesome place!
As to fish I.D's, I've got one from when I was snorkelling in the bay outside my hotel. I'm guessing it was a Tub Gurnard, however all the pictures I see of gurnads the "wings" seem a slightly more ovalline shape, this guy was slightly smaller than the norm so I'm guessing it could just be a juvenile or something?
http://zpyder.co.uk/images/zoom/malta05/imgp6168.jpg
(Excuse the blurriness. I'd never seen or heard of a gurnard before then. Every time I got close those 'wings' would fold out showing that bright blue colour. It's an effective deterrance, I associated that colour/behaviour as "I'm deadly poisonous, keep away!!!" so I did. Though I'm under the impression now, the gurnard isn't poisonous at all?...taken with the zoom maxed out and then the image enlarged a bit :/)
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