Karaada Hot Springs Reef

Karaada — Black Island — hosts a remarkable geothermal feature where warm mineral-rich water seeps through fissures in the volcanic rock, creating a thermal gradient that supports a unique micro-ecosystem found nowhere else on the Turkish coast. Schools of salema orbit the warm plumes while moray eels and octopus tuck into the fractured basalt. The vivid red and orange encrusting sponges that carpet the walls here thrive on the mineral upwelling, making macro photography exceptional.