Legal framework
Governing: AP 109/2024 art. 6 (diving); AP 123/2019 (anchoring framework, Mediterranean); Code des transports L5242-2. Builds on: L3.1.
Divers and spearfishers
Diving support boats show the signal required by the collision regulations. A lone diver marks their position with a red flag with a white diagonal. A spearfisher tows a brightly coloured buoy. Within 100 m of either, every boat must slow down as much as possible and never exceed 5 knots (AP 109/2024 art. 6).
WARNING — the flag means a person A diver may surface anywhere within that 100 m. At 5 knots you still need a lookout forward; at 20 you have no chance of seeing a head in a chop.
Swimmers
Swimming zones are closed to registered craft (L3.1). Outside them, the 2026 speed rule requires you to slow near swimmers (Code des transports R5242-2). Before starting the engine or moving off, check the stern: the propeller is the part of the boat that injures people.
What anchoring means in law
AP 123/2019 defines mouillage as holding the boat with an anchor resting on the seabed. Picking up a mooring buoy is an "arrêt" (stop), not anchoring, and dynamic positioning is also treated as a stop. The framework:
- anchoring must not damage, alter or destroy the habitat of protected marine plants, so it is forbidden to anchor in such a habitat where the anchor is likely to harm it (art. 6);
- anchoring and stopping are forbidden in port approach channels and beach buoyage lanes, except in emergency (art. 4.2);
- the skipper of an anchored boat remains responsible for it, and must be reachable by VHF or, failing that, by phone (art. 3.4–3.5);
- zones and length thresholds are set by local orders for each département (art. 7).
The headline local bans concern yachts of 24 m and over (20 m in places). A 7 m rental boat is not caught by those length rules, but it is caught by the general ban on damaging seagrass.
Posidonia: what it is and how to avoid it
Posidonia oceanica is a Mediterranean seagrass, protected in France since 1988, forming dense meadows that shelter fish and hold the seabed together. An anchor dragged through it tears out shoots that take decades to regrow.
| Seabed | How it looks from the boat | Anchor? |
|---|---|---|
| Sand | Pale, turquoise water | Yes |
| Posidonia | Dark patches, green-black | No |
| Rock | Dark, irregular | Poor holding, avoid |
Practical method:
- aim for pale sand patches, and look before you drop;
- use the apps promoted by the park authorities: DONIA (seagrass mapping) and Nav&Co (local rules and buoyage);
- pay out enough scope so that the anchor does not drag;
- recover vertically: motor gently up to the anchor before breaking it out, rather than dragging it across the bottom;
- where a mooring field (ZMEL) exists, use its buoys; anchoring inside a ZMEL is usually forbidden.
The penalty
Breaching préfet maritime regulations on prohibited zones for navigation, anchoring or certain activities is punishable by up to one year's imprisonment and a €150,000 fine (Code des transports L5242-2; AP 123/2019 art. 8). It is rarely the rental customer who is prosecuted, but the text makes no exception for you.
TIP — lunch stop If the only clear sand is too close to swimmers, the answer is a mooring buoy or another bay, not a smaller anchor.