The Mediterranean Sea is one of Jávea’s main attractions, but it is below its surface where one can find an activity, scuba diving, which has made this town of Costa Blanca the favourite Spanish destination for lovers of this sport.
The 25km of coast that surround Jávea houses a gem that is the Cap de Sant Antoni’s Marine Reserve, as well as other interest points for lovers of scuba diving like Calablanca, Cap Prim, Portitxol bay, Cap Negre, Cap de la Nau, Isla del Descubridor and La Granadella, all of these are distinguishable thanks to their high-quality and transparency of its waters that make Jávea the focus for other fields like underwater photography or marine biology. Moreover, it can not be forgotten that barely 500 metres away from he coast it is possible to admire bottlenose dolphins or spot fin whales that pass by Jávea on their way to the Ligurian Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar.
Jávea boasts enviable weather conditions for scuba diving as during the winter the temperature of its waters never drops below 13 degrees, whilst in the summer it reaches 26 degrees. Its rocky sea beds house a wide variety of habitats that can be explored submerging yourself at various depths. Using merely diving goggles, a snorkel and flippers you can do dives reaching up to two metres of depth (snorkelling) where you can appreciate sea urchins, white seabream, flathead grey mullet and European seabass, amongst other species. With the use of a tank you can reach depths of up to 18 metres, where purple sea urchins and the common and red starfish emerge. In deeper depths, at 30 metres below the surface, you can discover moray eels, conger eels, red porgy, groupers, common dentex as well as red and European lobsters. More experienced divers, specialised in technical scuba diving (dives of more than 40 metres in depth), are extremely fortunate in enjoying shipwrecks of the Jávean coast like the Vaporet, Casquet merchant or El Danés, a sunken ship measuring more than 100 metres in length. All of these provide popular tours which can be combined with visits to the different tunnels and caves that scatter 22 diving areas situated along the Jávean coast.
Scuba diving is a sport and also a wonderful family leisure activity, as it can be done by children 10 years or older. Whatever the age of the scuba divers, they must respect some basic rules that guarantee the care of the water and floral and fauna species typical of the Jávean coast. The diver is always a privileged visitor that must pass as unnoticeable as possible during their visit under the sea. This is the only way scuba diving will continue to be a sustainable sport whilst Jávea’s sea floor retains all its appeal for generations to come.
