Along the vertical cliff that goes from Punta Motta to North, at a depth of about 15 m, we bump into the entry of a huge cave, known as the ” Sirens Cave”, the bottom of which is a short sandy plateau at about 25 m. Further down, the wall continues to sink into the blue up to challenging bathymetries.
The cave is divided into several rooms, with three main rooms, the last of which has a cavity of small size where there’s a bubble of breathable air, decorated with numerous stalactites on the ceiling.
The penetration inside the cave is allowed only to expert divers, in possession of the pertinent certification. Visibility is usually good and, looking from the first large room, the view of the huge open front, on the blue of Tyrrhenian Sea, is priceless.
In the cave’s crevices there are many different species of shrimp, especially Plesionika narval, but also many Stenopus spinosus. Where the sun lights up the side walls, we can admire many brightly colored sponges, red algae, tunicates and coelenterates, in the middle of which are hidden camouflaged small scorpion fishes and several species of nudibranchs, the Discodoris atromaculata and the Hypselodoris orsinii, for example.
Going up to the exit of the cave, dense shoals of damselfish (Chromis chromis) and many Anthias anthias accompany us to the surface in the blue crystalline water.
| Place | Sirens Cave, Palmi |
|---|---|
| Dive type | By boat |
| Bottom type | -25 mt |
| Depth (min/max) | 0/25 m |
| Currents | Scarce |
| Currents | Scarse |
| Dive Path | In circle inside the cave |
| Biodiversity | Abundance of sponges and micro fauna typical of sciophilous environments, especially shrimps |
| Peculiarities | Limestone formations (stalactites) in the small portion of air at the end of one cave’s chamber. |
