El Bajón

El Bajón — the Drop or the Sudden Depth — communicates its character precisely: this is an advanced El Hierro site defined by a dramatic descent, where the relatively shallow reef shelf of La Restinga's southern coastline suddenly gives way to steep wall or sharp drop-off that plunges into the deep blue Atlantic. In a diving area already celebrated for exceptional visibility and marine life, the Bajón takes these qualities and frames them in the most dramatic possible geological setting. The approach to El Bajón begins in the protected, clear waters of La Restinga's dive zone, traversing the rich basalt reef that characterises the island's shallow sections. El Hierro's exceptional water quality is immediately apparent: clarity of twenty-five to forty metres transforms the descent to the drop-off into a scenic event, with the wall face visible from a distance that contextualises its scale and drama. The basalt formations here are encrusted with the organisms that flourish under the island's biosphere reserve protection — sponge communities of impressive density and colour, anemone carpets, and the hard coral formations that are more common in El Hierro's warmer waters than at other Canary Islands sites. The drop itself is where the advanced designation earns its meaning. The wall descends sharply from the reef table into depths well beyond recreational limits, requiring careful management of descent rate and bottom time. Current along this section of wall can be significant, and the experience required to manage these conditions safely — combined with the depth itself — makes El Bajón appropriate only for experienced divers. The rewards at depth include the sponge-encrusted wall architecture at its most dramatic, the black coral formations that develop below twenty metres in El Hierro's warm, clear water, and the pelagic encounters that the drop-off's exposed position generates. Angel sharks patrol the sandy transitions between reef structures, and large grouper hold territories in the wall's deeper crevices. A magnificent, demanding dive in one of the Atlantic's finest dive environments.