General:
The Mersinia islands are very close to Tarti and Big Mersinia is located more to the SE. The main feature is the vertical, steep walls and the deep waters. We encounter many shoals of fish with intense movement, due to the strong currents. The diving depths are from 5-40 meters. The abundance of fish, combined with the purposeful course along with the direction of the current, creates a pleasant, fun, but also intense, adventurous feeling. Recommended for divers of at least Open Water Diver level. Access is possible by boat from Gera, Charamida and Plomari.
Details:
It takes 15 minutes by speedboat from Charamida to the islets of Mersinia.
The current usually comes from the SW, where it hits the corresponding side of the island. It splits into two and each stream continues in a NE direction, where they move parallel, but on the 2 long sides of the island. Diving in the current requires a drop off point (point where divers fall) and a pick-up point (point where the boat picks them up) and anchoring is not recommended. The drop off process requires precision to keep the divers together underwater.
Here the current is usually strong and the wall continues to the bottom quite deep, but we are compensated by the abundance of fish (saddled sea bream, white sea breams, bogues, damsel fish, groupers, painted sea comber, sarpa salpa, picarel, two banded sea bream).
We continue at a depth of 10-15 meters and let the current carry us. About halfway along the route, we encounter impressive rock formations at a depth of 20-25 meters. As we get closer to the NE part of the island, the route becomes shallower 10-15 meters, with alternating sandy bottom, Posidonia and pinnacles.
Towards the end of the route, on a shallow plateau, the current becomes weaker, an ideal point for the safety stop at 5 meters, where the diving boat, will be waiting for us on the surface, at the pick-up point.