CONARGO

Protected Area

Irish Sea Front

Why dive here

With 118+ marine species recorded in the area - including dolphins, dwarf minke whales, humpback whales, ocean sunfish (mola mola) and orcas - CONARGO offers some of Northumberland & Northeast's richest wreck diving.

Marine lifeDolphins, Dwarf Minke Whales, Humpback Whales, Ocean Sunfish (Mola Mola) and Orcas · 118+ species recorded

CharacterWreck dive · max 45m

StandoutRich in charismatic marine life

The Conargo is a big, serious wreck. Lying off Seaham at 45 metres, it’s a dive for experienced deep divers only. This old German steamer, torpedoed in 1918, is remarkably intact for her age, especially considering how many wartime wrecks are just scattered debris. We love how her huge triple-expansion engines still stand proud, a real testament to early 20th-century engineering. You can really get a sense of her scale down there, picking out details like the prop shaft and the cavernous holds. Visibility can swing wildly, as it often does in the Northeast. We’ve had dives where you could see 15 metres, and others where it was a struggle to find the bow. Best to pick a slack tide and a settled period of weather for the clearest water. Even in gloomier conditions, the sheer size of the Conargo and the amount of resident fish life make it worthwhile. Expect to find pollack and cod sheltering in the darker recesses, and a surprising amount of invertebrate growth on the steel. It's not a dive for beginners, but for those with the training, it’s a fantastic piece of history to explore.