Grotta dei Gamberi

This dive site is located on the southwestern coast of the island of Ustica, at “Punta Galera“. Here, the tongue of land extends southward and continues below the sea surface. The emerged part of this point is very jagged and delimits the two coves.

Mooring usually takes place in the westernmost cove, and the dive begins with a descent into the shallow waters of the bay. Following the profile of the rocky ridge towards the open sea, we arrive at a submerged buoy; this is where the rockslide of “Punta Galera” begins. From this point, we descend straight towards the base of the rockslide, reaching a depth of 40m, where on a sandy bottom the wide entrance of the cave appears.

Inside the cave, we can admire many glowing dots, which are nothing but the little eyes, illuminated by our torches, of the parapandalo shrimp, present in large quantities in every crevice, on the walls, and even in the upper vault of the cave. The visit proceeds keeping the wall on the left, until the exit. Other species we can encounter here are lobsters, slipper lobsters, various types of crabs, conger eels and hakes intent on feasting at the expense of the shrimp. It’s impossible not to pause, looking towards the wide entrance opening of the cave, to admire the surprising play of light and color in shades of blue in sharp contrast with the light sandy seabed.

The cave exit is located between large boulders and a splendid arch looking out towards the open sea. From here we begin our ascent along the rockslide of Punta Galera. The return route to the dinghy still allows us to admire schools of sharpsnout sea bream and banded sea bream, brown groupers, nudibranchs, starfish, pencil urchins, octopuses, cuttlefish and moray eels.