Diving in Morocco is not yet well established, and it is very hard to find a dive centre or club and divers in this country. I dived off the Moroccan coast at the disputed Islet of Perejil earlier this year, via a Spanish dive centre in Ceuta. This trip was no different, my dive off the small fishing village of Tibouda in Morocco was also conducted by a Spanish dive centre, this time from Melilla.
My journey started with an evening drive up to Malaga in Spain. I then boarded an overnight ferry, bound for Melilla, a Spanish enclave in the North Moroccan Coast. I planned to dive in Melilla the day I arrived, but the dive club I was in contact with had cancelled the diving that day due to “bad weather”.
The next day I was told not to expect great visibility for my photographs. A dive was arranged from the dive club and little did I know, that the dive was actually going to be done off the Moroccan coast and not off Melilla itself. A 20 minute boat ride away, took us to a reef opposite the small fishing village of Tibouda. Here some small underwater ridges follow down from the rock formations on land.
As I jumped off the boat, I noticed a beautiful warm blue sea surrounding me, but as we descended, the temperature suddenly dropped drastically and so did the visibility. With my macro lens set on my camera, I searched around for some marine life. Unfortunately there wasn’t much around, but I did manage to see a few things to photograph. As with every country I visit, I find a new marine species not known to me. This time in Morocco, I found the seabed covered in small mushroom like organisms attached to the rocks. Afterwards, I consulted some marine biologists on a social media page, and found it to be tunicates!
My short weekend away to Melilla, came to a close the following day. I stayed without diving in Melilla itself, but I will come back in the future.