Top Ten Dive Sites

As I contemplate this list, I think of unique experiences related to individual dive sites, not just cool dive sites with beautiful reefs etc.

From that perspective, I have to second Tiger Beach, Bahamas and Three Sisters Spring, Crystal River, Florida. Is there any more satisfying dive experience then interacting with manatees.

Listed as they come up in my mind, no ranking possible:

1. Where I got my first baitball with sharks ONLY in 20m viz and bumped silly about 20 times...somewhere along off Poenskop, South Africa. Well it's not really a site so I guess I'll have go with...

2. Secret Bay/Bull Point/XXX, Anilao, PI... mating wunderpus, mimic, mototi, bluering and even a flamboyant cuttlefish all in one spot, a cephalopod lover's dream dive. Very accessible dive from shore place.

3. Little Komodo, FakFak, Indonesia. Schooling 'cudas, GT baitballs, jacks, muck, awesome fry action and just loads of life...all in one spot ... for reef life 50% as it should be in the pre-sharkfin world ... unless you go to....

4. Fiabacet, R4, Papua Barat... super fry density with predators everywhere from GTs to mobula rays to tuna, healthy coral growth and even a few sharks deep down... the marine biodiversity capital's offering of what 60% of what reef life should be ... and then you find ...

5. SUPERSECRET SPOT, Pacific Ocean near Indonesia: a real school of hammers and other reef sharks, dugongs, mantas, mobulas, tuna in super fry school action and healthy corals with cleaning stations and usually even great viz. 70% of what life should be and it's still recovering. Ranks lower because of inaccessibility and fishermen also google.

6. The Yongala, rich with life, rays, nappie wrasse, the occasional big shark like tigers, olive snakes thicker than my ankles, all sorts of schooling reef life in a balanced biosphere that has been left untouched. Not very biodiverse but what all reefs should be like in terms of health if there was a perfect world.

7. Tulamben with the Liberty: Wreck with great life including resident trevally school, awesome cleaning stations, muck with the oddest critters on the side and the occasional pelagic visitor like a mola mola, all just 50m from the beach with the main road another 50m back.. Nothing more to ask for in a dive site!

8. Any site in Lembeh when it's hot and no other divers are around!

9. Bajo Alcyone, Isla de Cocos or the Fridge, Isla de Malpelo, 'nuff said!

10. E6, Koro, Fiji. The colors of the soft corals in 30m viz is just beautiful and then you get the pelagic sharks and the swim through to the Cathedral etc.

11. Tatawa Kechil or BatuBolong, Komodo, Indonesia. Soft corals, reef fish, pelagics big and small

12. Pantar Island, Alor, Indonesia. Huge queensland groupers with great coral growth and fish life... and lots of current. Then you end off with a pier where a bunch of kids are always playing in the water.

13-100 Plenty of sites that deserve mention but you limited it to 11.

1. Alycone - Cocos

2. Pimpernel Rock - Northern NSW, Australia

3. Nusa Penida Channel - Bali

4. Cyclone Reef / Mulloway Reef - Tufi, Papua New Guinea

5. Southern Mozambique

6. Yongala - Townville Australia

7. Sardine Run - SA

8. Brothers - Red Sea

9. Fish Rock Cave - South West Rocks, NSW Australia

10. Tiger Beach - Bahamas

Maybe not completely in the correct order.... but hey, they move around a little depending on the day!

In no special order

Hard to Find, Komodo

Blue Corner, Palau

Mi'il Channel, Yap (FSM)

Iles Sept Freres, Eritrea

Puglug Island, Ulithi Atoll, Yap (FSM)

Nudi Falls, Lembeh

Aliwal Shoal, RSA

Ulong Channel, Palau

E6 - Fiji

El Bajon, Canary Islands

Cheers,

Mark

Kuredu Express- Maldives

St. Johns Reefs- Red Sea

Brothers-Red Sea

Ishmael's thila-Maldives

Anemone thila-Maldives

Anywhere in Malta/Gozo

Nassau-Bahamas

Barbados- West and South Coast

Menorca caves

Ibiza

Fuerteventura

Malinbeg harbour/St. Johns Point-Co. Donegal

Anywhere where the water is blue

Anywhere on the atlantic side of Ireland once the viz is good

My local river before it was polluted

My bath.

Actually we dont we ask........... what are the worst dive locations you have visited???

Not in particular order (but Sha'ab Rumi is my #1 so far):

Sha'ab Rumi South, Sudanese Red Sed

Barracuda Point, Sipadan Island

Richelieu Rock, Surin Archipelago/Thailand

Manta Reef, Pemba Island, Tanzania

Sanganeb north point, Sudanese Red Sea

Brother Islands, Egypt (Little Brother north)

Manta Reef, Moçambique

Elephant Rock, Similan Islands/Thailand

s/s Umbrea, Port Sudan

Hin Mouang, Andaman Sea, Thailand (unfortunatelly it got destroyed in 2007)

good luck

This is fun. In no particular order, and only places I have dived more than once:

Poor Knights, New Zealand

Yongala, Townsville, Australia

Little Brother, Egypt

Tiputa Pass, Rangiroa, French Polynesia

Tiger Beach, Bahamas

Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi

Manuelita, Cocos (but really everywhere at Cocos)

Windjammer Wreck, Bonaire

Blue Heron Bridge, Florida, USA

Ras Mohammed, Egypt

The big thing is though whether a dive site is ON when you're there. If not even the greatest sites can be average.

In no particular order...

Bicheno, Tasmania, Australia

E6, Fiji

Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia

Sha'ab Rumi, Sudan

Sha'ab Abu Nuhas, Egypt

Brothers, Egypt

Cousteau's Conshelf experiment, Sudan

Ras Mohammed, Egypt

Tiran, Egypt

Elphinstone, Egypt

In no particular order...

 

Also in no particular order

Channel Islands Southern California

Lembeh

South Coast New Britain

Mary Island (Solomon's)

White Beach (Solomon's)

Little Cayman

St Vincent (With Bill Tewes)

Milne Bay

Kimbe Bay

Bali

Gunung Api

 

Actually 11 but they are all great

Bill

Can somebody pin this topic? - it is a great resource for "where do I really _NEED_ to go next" type contemplation.

Paul C

I cannot resist....

1. Darwin Island, Galapagos

2. South Pass, Fakarava Atoll , French Polynesia

3. Big Brother (the drift from the north point), Red Sea Egypt

4. Alcyone, Cocos Island, Costa Rica

5. Tiger Beach, northern Bahamas

6. Cabo Marshall, Isabela, Galapagos

7. Umbria shipwreck, Red Sea, Sudan

8. Liberty shipweck, Tulamben, Bali

9. Out Stack, Shetland, United Kingdom

10. Madivaru Channel, South Ari atoll, Maldives

I cannot resist....

 

1. Darwin Island, Galapagos

 

2. South Pass, Fakarava Atoll , French Polynesia

 

3. Big Brother (the drift from the north point), Red Sea Egypt

 

4. Alcyone, Cocos Island, Costa Rica

 

5. Tiger Beach, northern Bahamas

 

6. Cabo Marshall, Isabela, Galapagos

 

7. Umbria shipwreck, Red Sea, Sudan

 

8. Liberty shipweck, Tulamben, Bali

 

9. Out Stack, Shetland, United Kingdom

 

10. Madivaru Channel, South Ari atoll, Maldives

Thanks Simon

At least I've got pictures for all of your choices!

John, we didn't go to south pass Fakarava.. that was north pass..

Hmm....

South Pass Fakarava

Apataki, Tuamotu

Blue Corner, Palau

Goofnuw or Mi'il Channel, Yap, on a good day

Alcyone, Cocos

Tuau, Tuamotu

I only have 6...

But, i just watched something on Hanifaru Bay in Baa Atoll, Maldives. It looks like it would be my number one, on a good day!

Baa Atoll

Thanks Simon

 

At least I've got pictures for all of your choices!

My pleasure. All I need is someone to commission me to go and revisit them all, preferably with private flights and a helicopter!

John, we didn't go to south pass Fakarava.. that was north pass..

 

The north pass is a great dive, but the south pass is beyond amazing. An easy drift, hundreds and hundreds grey reef sharks, beautiful acropora coral in the shallows and schooling fish everywhere. The French dive centres are too lazy to go there most of the time, but there is a little pension located right on the pass. You can have lunch and watch blacktips in the lagoon.

 

 

.... Chinese resteraunteurs please note.. that's having lunch AND watching the blacktips IN the lagoon – not lunching on the blacktips in the lagoon....

Now new parameters:

Your Best dive site in:

1) Eastern Pacific

2) South Pacific

3) Indian Ocean

4) Caribbean

5) Western Atlantic

6) Far East

7) Red Sea

8) Mediterranean

9) Western Pacific

10) Coral Sea

Tough, eh?

Right.....now my "sensible list"....after a visit to Vobster today it just wasn't as good as I remember. Here goes:-

1. HMS Royal Oak, Scapa Flow, Scotland.

2. The cold water coral reef in Trondheim Fiord, Norway

3. The landing stage dive, Skellig Michael, Ireland

4. Te Waikoropupu Springs, New Zealand

5. The Poor Knights, New Zealand.

6. Consul Carl Fisser, Alesund, Norway.

7. Junkers 52, Hartvig, Norway.

8. HMS Swordfish, English Channel.

9. Moldavia, English Channel.

10. Garvie Island bombing range, Cape Wrath, Scotland.

Hmmmm.....lots of temperate waters there. The order was quite easy and only after number 8 did I start to pause. It's been good to reflect and review. Number 10 was a surprise. Had forgotten the thrill of finding a 1000lb bomb....Number 4. can't be dived any more, which is a shame, and I am not anticipating seeing number 1 again in my lifetime but its the one dive I would do if there was just one dive left in me. Assuming I could get a permit....

Simon

Now new parameters:

 

Your Best dive site in:

1) Eastern Pacific

2) South Pacific

3) Indian Ocean

4) Caribbean

5) Western Atlantic

6) Far East

7) Red Sea

8) Mediterranean

9) Western Pacific

10) Coral Sea

 

Tough, eh?

Indeed, that is tough ... even in terms of geography, you'd have to be more specific, John, I am not sure your categories are precisely defined enough.

For instance what do you you call "South Pacific" compared for instance to "Western Pacific" or even "Coral sea"...where would you pigeonhole Vanuatu or New Caledonia??

Also for Indian Ocean there's an UW world between the Eastern Indian Ocean, and the East African shores, not to say the central Maldivian... why then not split them up?

Where would you also put all the IndoPacific area like Borneo/N/Sulawesi, -Indian Ocean?- or or even the Phils (western pac or far east?)

Ha Ha,

The toughest part is I reckon JB is just plumping up a 'wish list' for presentation to say an editor so that he can get to a bucket load of more exotic locations funded by my (our) subscriptions to a certain dive magazine.

Please, tell us it not true John - are we really just offering up suggestions (sponsoring) your next round the world junket ? ( and can I carry your bags if so? ).

Paul C

Some of these may be a bit overdone, but its my top ten. And like everyone else, its in no particular order...

1) Seraya Secrets, Tulamben, Bali

2) Liberty wreck, Tulamben, Bali

3) Northern Arch, Poor Knights, New Zealand

4) HMNZS Waikato, Tutukaka, New Zealand

5) Almost anything in Vatu-i-ra Passage, Fiji

6) Stingray City, Grand Cayman

7) Three Sisters Spring, Crystal River, Florida

8) Rainbow River, Florida

9) Dangleben's Pinnacles, Dominica

10) Town Pier, Bonaire

I think this list is a great place to find new places to go! Now off to research a place or two!