Camp Bay (or El Quarry in

Llanito Llanito or Yanito () is a form of Andalusian Spanish heavily laced with words from English and other languages, such as Ligurian; it is spoken in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It is commonly marked by a great deal of code s ...

) is a small rocky

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

in the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. It is located off Rosia Road along the territory's west coast overlooking the

Bay of Gibraltar The Bay of Gibraltar (), is a bay at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It is around long by wide, covering an area of some , with a depth of up to in the centre of the bay. It opens to the south into the Strait of Gibraltar and the Med ...

. Parson's Lodge Battery overlooks the northern end of the bay. Camp Bay - panoramic

Artificial reef

Camp Bay is home to what is claimed to be Europe's first

artificial reef An artificial reef (AR) is a human-created freshwater or marine benthic structure. Typically built in areas with a generally featureless bottom to promote Marine biology#Reefs, marine life, it may be intended to control #Erosion prevention, erosio ...

. The reef was created by activists who were concerned at the scarcity of

marine life Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, aquatic plant, plants, algae, marine fungi, fungi, marine protists, protists, single-celled marine microorganisms, microorganisms ...

. The early experiments of floating out and sinking derelict cars merely demonstrated the power of local storms and currents. A second attempt used ships that were no longer required. Some were vessels that would have been abandoned in deep water, but the activists persuaded people to sink them in shallower waters. Significant donations were floating harbours and the large cable ship known as the ''482''. These ships now create a haven for marine life and are a destination for thousands of divers each year.

References

Beaches of Gibraltar {{Gibraltar-geo-stub