El Bajon just off the coast of La Restinga on the island of El Hierro on the Canary Islands is a dive site with an underwater volcano.

Due to the vertical walls going down to 100 metres at some points, special currents have been formed bringing in a lot of marine life. It is also a protected marine area causing certain fish species to have grown in extreme sizes.

I’m excited when we dive into the crater and spot a huge round ray in a cave. We can’t stay long here since our computers are almost going into deco so we slowly make our way up spotting a devil ray above us.

We continue our dive on the shallower part next to the volcano where we see octopus, morays, parrotfish, trumpetfish and a giant grouper. It is said that the whale shark has been spotted here too!

The Author: Ellis Derkx is a PADI MSDT with experience as a dive instructor in the Canary Islands.