Eckernförde – mole & artificial reef
Right across the road from the Tauchen & Meer base in Eckernförde, you enter from a sandy beach and drop onto a seagrass meadow at about 3 m. The dive area is bounded by the long outer mole, whose underwater part is steel sheet piling with window-sized openings that let you swim under the pier among overgrown piles, often with large herring schools in the open water. At the mole head a collection of objects found on the bottom has been set up, and the deepest point is about 10 m. North-east of the entry, past a mussel-covered pipe triangle at 6.5 m, lies the artificial reef built by the town (2007): towers of stacked concrete elements at 7–7.8 m where the base has seen porpoises chasing cod, lumpfish and nudibranchs.
Facts
- Region: Germany – Baltic & North Sea Coast
- Area: Schleswig-Holstein Baltic (Fehmarn, Kiel, Eckernförde)
- Depth: 0–10 m
- Level: beginner
- Current: low
- Type: bay, jetty, reef
- Coordinates: 54.4725, 9.84 (approximate)
- Highlights: seagrass meadow from 3 m, outer mole of steel sheet piling with windows cut through, school of poor cod in the mole corner, goldsinny wrasse at a large boulder, large herring schools in open water, sunken 'collection' of tables and bicycles at the mole head, artificial reef of stacked concrete elements at 7–7.8 m, 'Dreigestirn' pipe triangle at 6.5 m covered in mussels and sea squirts, harbour porpoises hunting cod (base report), lumpfish, nudibranchs, shrimps and eels in the shallows
- Tips: Register with the base by e-mail or phone (04351 3262); the base fee is €10 for changing, rinsing and a briefing, fills extra. Diving inside the marina is forbidden – keep to the area outside the steel piles. Take care when anglers are on the mole. To reach the reef, swim a 45° (NE) course from the entry. The beach entry is also used by Tauchcenter Eckernförde e.V., which describes a separated bathing and diving area with depths to 12 m.