Dive site · sea · The Zeeland Delta
🇳🇱 Zeelandbrug
Zierikzee, Zeeland, Netherlands
Diving under the pillars of a five-kilometre bridge in a tidal estuary — and in April and May, under the cuttlefish that come in to breed.
- Dives here
- 6
- Deepest
- 18.6 m
- Water
- salt
- First · last
- 2007 · 2024
- Position
- 51.6290, 3.9129
Revision 2 · changed 18 Oct 2026
History
- r2 18 Oct 2026 Photo size matches the file · Dennis Bakhuis
- r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis
Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf
1 map
- Entry / exit
- Hazard
- Point of interest
- Bridge
- Other object
- Shoreline
- Depth contour
- Dive path
- Wall / drop-off
- Other area
- Depth
The dive site on the Schouwen side of the Zeelandbrug, on the north shore of the Oosterschelde: Instap 1 and Instap 2 on the dike, the first three bridge pillars, the rock reef (Breukstenenrif) with the steel slag, sepia sticks, racks and the Ecorif, the 5 and 10 m lines and the three usual routes. The pillars, bridge, dike and the west stairs used for Instap 2 are from OpenStreetMap. The origin is the site's stored point on the water 2.4 km south-west, so the drawing sits north-east of it. Depths of objects follow the depth bands and are approximate; the second pillar is for experienced divers and the whole site is a slack-water dive.
Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf
The Zeelandbrug crosses the Oosterschelde between Schouwen-Duiveland and Noord-Beveland: 5 022 m long, opened in 1965, and at the time the longest bridge in Europe. It is not part of the Delta Works — it was built to replace the ferry, while the Delta plan was still arguing about whether to dam the estuary at all.
The dive is on the north side, among the concrete pillars in 10–20 m. The pillars are colonised top to bottom — dead man's fingers, anemones, sponges, sea squirts — and they concentrate everything that lives in the estuary into a small, findable area. Lobsters and conger eels live in the rock armour at their feet.
It is a slack-water dive, and not optional: the current through the Oosterschelde runs hard and the tide tables on the dyke are the thing that decides whether you get in.
Sepia season
For a few weeks in April and May, common cuttlefish — Sepia officinalis — come into the Oosterschelde in numbers to mate and lay their eggs, and the Zeelandbrug is the best place in the Netherlands to see them. The whole Dutch diving calendar bends around it.
Six dives, October 2007 to August 2024, to 18.6 m.
Image: Oosterschelde 2023 Zeelandbrug (1).jpg — Dkvtig, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Photos
Dived here with
Nearby sites
6 dives at Zeelandbrug
Dives per year
Water temperature by month
Mean water temperature in °C; an empty month had no dives.
| Month | Mean | Dives |
|---|---|---|
| January | no dives | 0 |
| February | no dives | 0 |
| March | no dives | 0 |
| April | no dives | 0 |
| May | no dives | 0 |
| June | no dives | 0 |
| July | 20.0 °C | 1 |
| August | 19.5 °C | 2 |
| September | no dives | 0 |
| October | no dives | 0 |
| November | no dives | 0 |
| December | no dives | 0 |
- 24 Aug 2024 with Arend date24 Aug 2024 depth8.6 m time58 min water19 °C
- 26 Aug 2023 with Arend date26 Aug 2023 depth18.6 m time56 min water20 °C
- 23 Jul 2021 with Erik, Kim date23 Jul 2021 depth9.7 m time80 min water20 °C
- 7 May 2011 with Kim date7 May 2011 depth11 m time18 min water—
- 7 Jun 2008 with Jeroen, Kim date7 Jun 2008 depth8.1 m time26 min water—
- 20 Oct 2007 with Xavier date20 Oct 2007 depth6.3 m time29 min water—
Sources
- First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)