In Spain you need a licence to do most things, and diving in the National or Natural Park is one of them. However, obtaining this licence is not as simple as it sounds. Firstly you need to have a dive school registered with the Junta for Tourismo Activo. To which end you require accepted teaching status with a recognised dive certifying authority i.e. PADI, the correct insurance, be registered for tax and have all your equipment in date and certified.

 

Our dive site just east of Cantarajan was full of life, moray and conger eels, an abundance of octopus and shoals of bream, wrasse and damsel fish. It was interesting to note that sea fans were more abundant than in our usual dive sites. Large Zebra bream seemed roam quite freely and are not a shy of the divers as they usually are.

As we set off from the designated mooring buoy it was superb to have over twenty metres of visibility, (eat your heart out Red Sea), and with nice warm water, you can hear the cacophony of noise from the millions of surrounding sea creatures.

We had only just arrived when the Junta wardens appeared, asking for our licence. Its nice to know that they are policing the area and we will have a Natural Park to be envied in years to come. “Yes we have a licence, and it was well worth the effort”.