Spain - Tossa de Mar

[K.Haroon]

Tossa de Mar is a municipality in Catalonia, Spain, located on the Costa Brava, about 103 kilometres north of Barcelona and 100 kilometres south of the French border. Costa Brava is a coastal region of northeastern Spain, stretching from Blanes, 60 km northeast of Barcelona, to the French border. Tossa de Mar has three main beaches, one of them being La Mar Menuda. Mar Menuda is a small beach to the east of wich lies a narrow rocky gallery. The initial gradual depth falls abruptly to a sandy corridor from where three different routes can be taken: straight on leads to L'Illa (the largest rock and the furthest from the coast); to the right leads to the Mar Menuda beach and to the left to Ses Illetes. The underwater landscape is dominated by attractive rock galleries whose sandy beds descend gradually. Clumps of Neptune grass appear among the rocks, the upper surface of wich are covered with bright green Halimeda Tuna algae (especially at the beginning of the spring). Damselfish, bream and gilthead abound while you should see dentex, octopus, rays, moray eels and fan mussels, as well as white sea-whips, brotulids and maybe some groupers near L'Illa. Squid begin to appear at the end of the year, while eggs are always laid in the cave (at Christmas); later, anglerfish and common stingrays arrive (they lie in the sand). The conger is also a frequent visitor to this area. Went diving here in June 2013. The dive center was TossaSub which I highly recommend, very friendly and helpful staff. The water was cold with a temperature of 16 deg C, but my 3mm Neo Sport jacket over the 5mm Aqualung Safaga wetsuit was quite comfortable. Can't forget the terrible tooth ache I had underwater but at the same time was very excited to see a huge camouflaged angler fish.

Photo Source: espanarusa.com