Diving Zanzibar??

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations of a dive operator? East African Divers and Zanzibar Watersports are two that come up, if anyone has experience with them I'd be happy to hear and pass the info along to a good friend of mine who wants to do one or two days of diving there. Thank you.

I stayed at Ras Nungui (sp?) resort last year and dove w/ their dive shop. I visited Mnemba and also the reef at Ras Nungui (the point).

The shop/boat was OK. The diving at Mnemba was poor, but the reefs at the Ras (point) were very good.

HTH

James

I dunno James. A lot of the sites on Mnemba are deeper and the one that made me a pelagic lover again was the wall. I still remember the tuna schools, 2 whalesharks and all sorts of big stuff. I'll agree the coral is not as nice. The dolphin action is better in Mnemba than the big island too.

I believe it's Ras Nungwi? There's a spot north of the point which I can't remember the name of right now, which had big schools of snappers, cudas and jacks. I remember it was very current driven and we had tuna and nappie wrasse and dolphins. Definitely a must see dive.

Then you have Pemba....

Drew,

Any experience with either of these two operators or have an alternative to suggest?

I was originally going to dive Pemba, but my Africa trip schedule has shifted to complete landbased activities but my friend is leaving there to hike and will be making time to dive.

Thanks James, I'll check into Ras Nung(ui/wi) and let her know.

Cheers!

Sorry I dived from Mnemba Resort. No idea about the ops mentioned. Mnemba ops was decent but I hung out with a shareholder of the resort who took the boats to far out places that I'm sure the resort ops wouldn't normally go.

Is Mnemba the best spot for whale sharking in the Zanzibar area?

Or is that Pemba for the big stuff?

If you want to see whalesharks, there are better chances along the mainland coast, esp. further up in Kenya. But you do see them around the islands from time to time.

I would also suggest a visit to Pemba Island, which has very different underwater topography than Zanzibar, with deep waters surrounding the island producing clear water and nutritious upwellings giving better coral growth and marine diversity in general. There used to be a lots of manta rays in certain spots in Pemba, but not anymore. Probably due to local fishing. A liveaboard is the best way to explore Pemba, but there is at least one good landbased option in Manta Reef Lodge/One Earth Diving. It's located on the nortern tip of Pemba Island.

The b e s t whaleshark spot in Africa is off Tofinjo, Mozambique. Also mantas, mantas, mantas...

There's a spot north of the point which I can't remember the name of right now, which had big schools of snappers, cudas and jacks. I remember it was very current driven and we had tuna and nappie wrasse and dolphins. Definitely a must see dive.

Leven Bank

Ah that's right. Levens. And the best place for whalesharks in Africa is not in Moz... but.... shhhhh

Ah that's right. Levens. And the best place for whalesharks in Africa is not in Moz... but.... shhhhh

Is mandatory for every WP Moderator to reveal all the secret spots!!

I would think Djibouti is a very good african site to see whale sharks... but there is not much else...

Senor

Please read the title... I'm the video expert, the moderator duties were just add on to the job description by Eric, and he regrets it everyday since then.

As the other mods will tell you, I'm very selfish with my secret spots.

Senor

Please read the title... I'm the video expert, the moderator duties were just add on to the job description by Eric, and he regrets it everyday since then.

As the other mods will tell you, I'm very selfish with my secret spots.

Come on, you can tell me here and nobody else will see it!!

Is mandatory for every WP Moderator to reveal all the secret spots!!

 

I would think Djibouti is a very good african site to see whale sharks... but there is not much else...

David

Djibouti (Devils Cauldron) is definetely good, but not as consistent and not year round, like Tofinjo.

cheers