Yes: in the Cap de Creus Natural Park you can scuba dive throughout the park except in the s'Encalladora Integral Nature Reserve. Independent divers need to give prior notice and each boat is capped at 6 dives a day, 30 a week and 120 a year; with a centre, only authorised ones.
Yes, you can scuba dive in almost all of the sea in the Cap de Creus Natural Park, on your own or with a dive centre. The only closed area is the s'Encalladora Integral Nature Reserve, next to the point. What changed with the 2025 management plan is everything else: independent divers have to give notice beforehand and there is a cap on dives per boat, and only authorised centres may operate.
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Where you can dive and where you cannot
The park's frequently asked questions on the marine regulations, in their July 2026 version, put it in one line: diving is allowed throughout the park except in the s'Encalladora Marine Integral Nature Reserve. Those questions set out the Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG), whose approval was published in the Official Journal of the Generalitat de Catalunya on 30 July 2025.
There are also three partial nature reserves at sea: Cap Gros, Cap de Creus and Cap Norfeu. You can dive there, but with more limits. Night diving, between sunset and sunrise, is banned without authorisation, and that special authorisation is only granted for watching wildlife in small groups, filming or research. Motorised diving devices are banned, except for adapted diving or scientific monitoring. And in the no-fishing sectors, beginner, first-level and try-dive courses with scuba gear are not allowed.
On your own: prior notice and a cap per boat
Independent diving is allowed, but it requires prior notice to the park with the number of planned dives, the location and, where relevant, the boat. It is not a permit: it is a notification. Permits and notifications go through the Generalitat's online office using a standard form, and the park says it will add direct links as the procedures become available.
The cap is counted per boat: at most 6 dives in a day, 30 in a week and 120 in a year.
Where the boat comes from matters too. A motorboat that does not come from the ports or buoy fields of the park's municipalities, has no recreational fishing permit and has not notified a dive counts as a visitor, and visitors must report their visit to the park's marine area.
With a dive centre: authorised centres only
Inside the park, only authorised dive centres may organise dives, and only as many as their authorisation allows. There are two groups: in group A, up to 15 centres may dive every day; in group B, up to 8 centres, with no more than 2 outings a week and 20 a year.
Centres must carry Geoblau, a system for locating and tracking the activity, and send in data on their outings every month: day, time, dive site, clients, divers and guides. Before each dive they give an ecobriefing, a talk that reminds divers they are in a protected area, introduces the site and its species and explains how to behave underwater.
Underwater: what you must not do
During a dive it is forbidden to handle, touch, remove or alter plants, animals, archaeological remains or professional fishing gear that has been set, and to alter the structure of habitats. Scuba divers may not use fins of 80 centimetres or longer, measured from the back of the heel to the tip.
Not touching has a name on these walls: red coral, which grows on hard rock in low light, even inside caves, and which may not be harvested in Catalan waters. Its story in Cadaqués is in our red coral guide.
The diving buoys
The recommended way to moor is to a buoy, so boats do not drop anchor again and again. The frequently asked questions plan for 39 diving buoys, marked with a pictogram and managed by the park, and warn that not all of them are in place yet; the park's underwater routes page mentions 38 installed.
Divers have priority on them: a boat may stay moored for a maximum of 3 hours, other boats may use them if no dive boat needs them, and two boats may moor together if one of them is under 9 metres long.
What lies below
The park describes a very rich seabed thanks to low pollution, with red coral and gorgonians of the genus Paramuricea, spiny lobster and fish such as white seabream, saddled seabream, salema, red scorpionfish and dusky grouper.
By depth, it places the circalittoral communities between 20 and 80 metres, or deeper: little light gets through and animals dominate over algae. Higher up, right at the waterline, there is a ledge of calcareous algae that the park calls a trottoir.
Together with local dive centres, the park has prepared 29 underwater route sheets around the buoys. The one for Cova de l'Infern, in the partial reserve, highlights the slipper lobster, the forkbeard, octopus, moray eel and the yellow zoanthid Parazoanthus axinellae; the one for Ses Orgues goes down to 40 metres and adds the marbled electric ray and the skate. If you do not dive, the park's snorkelling routes show the shallower side.
When to go and the wind
The rules set no season: the caps per boat are per day, per week and per year. What decides is the sea, and the north coast of the cape is exposed: the park itself describes the island of s'Encalladora as exposed to the swell and the tramontana. On days when it blows, what to do on land is in our tramontana guide.
For questions, the information point at the park's headquarters in Vilajuïga opens every day from 9 am to 3 pm, and from 24 June to 11 September until 5 pm (checked in October 2026), on 972 193 191 and at pncapcreus@gencat.cat.
Checked
Information checked in October 2026 with: Cap de Creus Natural Park (frequently asked questions on the marine regulations, July 2026 version, and its «Activitats a mar» page; the underwater routes page and route sheets; the wildlife and landscape pages; the leaflet for the Punta de Cap de Creus and Tudela routes).
Quick questions
Do you need a permit to dive independently at Cap de Creus?
You do not need a permit, but you do need to give prior notice with the number of dives, the location and, where relevant, the boat. Night diving in the partial reserves does require authorisation.
How many dives can you do at Cap de Creus?
Independent divers are capped per boat at 6 dives in a day, 30 in a week and 120 in a year. Dive centres may only do as many as their authorisation allows.
Where is diving banned at Cap de Creus?
In the s'Encalladora Integral Nature Reserve. In the partial reserves of Cap Gros, Cap de Creus and Cap Norfeu there are more limits: no night diving without authorisation and no try dives with scuba gear in the no-fishing sectors.