The Los Erizos Wrecks 2007

Last week I had the pleasure to dive in the beautiful waters of Lanzarote and soak up the
beautiful sunshine and sights above and below the waterline. Lanzarote, one of the seven
Canary Islands and a UNESCO Biosphere reserve has many natural attractions to visit and
also offers a warm winter climate which serves as that perfect destination when the winter
chill set in at home. The waters are crystal clear and full of life and lovely and warm…

For my week I was based in Matagorda which is about 10mins from the airport and about 4km
from Puerto Del Carmen the bigger of the tourist areas on the south east coast. Within a few
days I had booked my dives with a centre called The Dive Shop Lanzarote. We met up at the
dive centre and sorted out what was needed, loaded the van up quickly at 9.00am and were
on the road by 9.15am. A short 10 min spin brought us to the harbour in Puerto Del Carmen.
This was originally a small fishing village but with the tourist explosion the harbour area had
been expanded somewhat but would be still be small by our Dun Laoighaire standards. Lying
in dock there were small ships with glass bottom hulls, a tourist submarine and fishing boats
etc but it was mainly small stuff.

We geared up and I must say it felt very strange wearing a light 4mm wetsuit, to be told you
won't need a torch or compass and boarding a boat as big as Big Len but being only 1 of 2
divers on board! A short 5min spin brought us to about 200m off the mouth of the harbour.
We entered the water quickly, gathered our thoughts and descended the anchor line to the
wrecks.

The brief had described the Los Erizos wrecks as being a large trawler measuring approx.
20m lying on its side in about 12 – 17m of water. As one moves towards the ship it becomes
clear that the trawler is lying on a shelf which when at the edge is an additional 20m + above
a series of other wrecks with lie then in 35-45m of water. All of the ships were deliberately
sunk but not made safe for divers, so there was still netting and lines attached to the ships.
The deeper ships were pretty broken up and had collapsed upon themselves but it was still a
sight. It was slightly like an underwater scrap yard for the want of a better description.

On descending the line the first thing that is clear is the absolutely wonderful visibility of up
25m and the amount of life that abounded. We left the line and swam towards the underside
of the trawler and the fish were everywhere. There were huge shoals of sardines that just
glimmered in the light and changed directions in a split second and they were a joy to behold,
seeing so many of them moving in uniform was pure magic. Further along the trawler and
rolling on to my back I could then see way above me a barracuda just hovering barely moving
and just watching everything that moved including me… At the shelf's edge we descended
down to 35m and still the visibility was perfect. Large Grouper fish were just lazily pottering
around slightly curious of me but not too put out by my presence. Zebra fish were abundant
as well and just going about their business.

At the depth of 38m the other wrecks were a sight to behold with collapsed decks, broken
funnels, decking awry, hatches open and fishing gear all over the sea bed. The boats had
been dropped in by the local government but it wasn't like other ships which are sunk for
diving. These boats were to be used to create an artificial reef so no great precision was
used and some were dropped on top of each other. On the bottom we came across a
number of Cuttle fish and one in particular that was eating a scorpion fish. The poor victim's
tail was sticking out of his mouth as we watched him slowly swallow it. On the dive the
distinct lack of vegetation was apparent apart from fish but there were some beautiful sea
urchins with beautiful deep blue and black colours with long 10" spines. Ashore it was
pointed out that these are non native sea urchins that were now in the local waters and these
were destroying the reefs and stripping rocks, boulders and wreckage of any growth so there
was little to be seen in that way.

We continued on our route over the wrecks and between the ropes and it was again slightly
strange to note that nothing moved so the ropes were just hanging in space perfectly still and
yet surrounded with stacks of life. We ascended to the first trawler and traversed around to
take in the decking and superstructure. Above the wreck in 5m of water we could see a
gathering of 6 Barracudas just waiting and looking mean. The wreck itself was again in pretty
good shape with funnels and structures still place and upright. Hatches were open and that
was the only time I regretted that I had no torch on the dive just to see what/who was inside
the ship. Our tour of the wreck brought us slowly to 10m and we were getting short on air so
headed for the anchor line. Our 3 minute stop was made perfect by again more shoals or
sardines just lazily swooning around us so close that it felt like you could touch them and at
times they blocked out the light when they were nearby as there was so many of them. We
surfaced and onto our boat and back to the shore.

Newsletter Articles

The Los Erizos Wrecks by Colm Lowney
Gozo Trip by anon
L'Estartit by Mark Seavers
Nearly No Nudis by Gavan Byrne
Schull Easter 2007 by Maire Kirby
The Fleet at Scapa Flow*
Diver Profile: Lionel Crabb*

*sourced from the web by an enthusiastic member