Reqqa Point · Gozo
Shrimp's Cave
A small chamber tucked into the wall west of Reqqa Point whose ceiling glitters with thousands of shrimp. Turn the torch off for a second and you can hear them.
Sea conditions
Excellent right now
Flat, sheltered and calm
Forecast for the site, updated 01:33 AM
- Waves
- 0.4 m
- from ESE
- Wind
- 7 km/h
- SSW, gusts 14
- Swell
- 0.3 m
- 5 s period
- Sea temp
- 28 °C
- air 27 °C
Next 7 days
Sunrise 06:47, sunset 19:06
Exposed to wind and swell from: NW (315°), N (0°), W (270°), NE (45°). Needs the same flat calm as the rest of Reqqa. Inside the chamber conditions are still, but the entry and exit over open rock are fully exposed to northerly swell and can deteriorate during the dive. Best season: June to October, with the clearest water usually in August and September..
The dive
Shrimp's Cave is not big and it is not deep by Gozo standards, but it is one of those dives people remember for years. You follow the wall west from the Reqqa entry, dropping as you go, until the rock opens into a modest cavern. Point a torch at the ceiling and it comes alive: a carpet of small cleaner shrimp, hundreds upon hundreds of them, eyes flaring back at the light and antennae waving. Hold still and a few will come and inspect your fingers.
The chamber is genuinely small, comfortable for a handful of divers at a time and no more, so groups take turns. It is a cavern rather than a true cave, with the daylight visible behind you throughout, but the overhead is real and so are the usual rules: light each, gas planning, no silt kicking, and an honest conversation about who is going in first.
Sources disagree slightly about the depth. Most Gozo operators describe the entrance at around 30 to 34 metres with the inner floor rising towards the mid twenties, which is the version to plan for; a couple of listings quote a much shallower figure that seems to describe a different opening along the same stretch of wall. Plan for the deeper number and you will not be caught out.
Most people combine it with the wall and the point for a proper multilevel dive: deep and dark first, then up into the sunlit boulder gardens on the way home.
- A ceiling completely carpeted in shrimp
- Small enough to feel like a private room, big enough not to feel trapped
- Easy to combine with the Reqqa wall and chimney for a multilevel dive
- Warmer water pocket inside the chamber
Typical plan
Enter at the point, descend and follow the wall west, staying around 25 metres until the cave mouth appears near 30 to 34. Go in two at a time, torches on the ceiling, hands off everything, and give it five minutes. Come out, turn east, and spend the rest of the dive working shallower along the boulders and the reef top, finishing over the 6 metre shelf. Around 45 minutes is realistic without decompression on nitrox 32; take a backup light and keep an eye on gas, because the deep part of this dive comes first.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Shallow shelf on the approach8 m deep · 40 m out
- 2Wall running west from the point22 m deep · 110 m out
- 3Boulders below the wall on the return leg30 m deep · 150 m out
- 4Mouth of Shrimp's Cave34 m deep · 180 m out
- 5Inner chamber, shrimp covered ceiling28 m deep · 205 m out
Coralline limestone wall and cavern floor with a thin skin of fine sediment inside the chamber.
Who you might meet
Cleaner shrimp
Almost always · Gamblu
Encrusting sponges
Almost always · Sponża
False coral
Almost always
Cardinalfish
Often · Re tal-Mullett
Mediterranean moray
Often · Morina
Scorpionfish
Often · Ċippullazza
Slipper lobster
Sometimes · Ċikala
Spiny lobster
Sometimes · Awwista
Dusky grouper
Sometimes · Ċerna
Nudibranchs
Sometimes · Spring
Getting in and staying safe
Park on the limestone shelf at Reqqa Point, reached through Marsalforn, Qbajjar and Xwejni past the salt pans. Short and genuinely sharp walk over the rocks to the water, so hard soled boots are not optional. Giant stride or slide entry from the low platform, with a ladder usually rigged near the point in summer. From the entry, the cave lies west along the wall. There are no facilities on site and the nearest toilets and coffee are in Marsalforn.
- Overhead environment, a torch each and a clear plan are essential
- Silt and fine sediment that can be stirred up by careless fins
- Depth around 30 m combined with an overhead, gas and no stop time go fast
- Very limited space inside, queueing wastes gas and patience
- Sensitive to northerly wind; the exit is the problem, not the cave
- Sharp rock on the walk in and out
- Long swim back along the wall if the current has picked up
A bit of history
The chamber is one of many cut by the sea into the Lower Coralline Limestone of Gozo's north coast, the same hard rock that produces Billinghurst Cave a few hundred metres further west and the natural chimneys around the point. The resident shrimp are Mediterranean cleaner species that colonise dark overhangs in huge numbers where there is shelter and moving water.
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Further reading: Divers Guide, Shrimp Cave · Atlantis Gozo Diving, Reqqa Point · Dive Shack Malta, Reqqa Point · Calypso Sub Aqua Club, Reqqa Point