Best diving between HK *AND* UK? (big pelagics)

Hi all,

Much to my friend's fault for moving to Hong Kong, we want to try and schedule a trip together in September, or a similar period. We're mostly interested in Big pelagics.

We've been looking at places between the UK and HK, which are easily accessible from both. I think we're all prepared to do 11-14 hour flights for good diving.

I looked up this article and it seems it's quite easy for us to get to reunion island, but it seems there's very little info about diving in Reunion Island?

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/diving-reunion-island

Having said that, Azores may also be an option, but I've heard the really amazing stuff in Azores is a pain to get to, and it isn't as easy to see these things as the marketing makes it out to be (i.e. 2 hour boat trips to specific dive sites, and you have to be on the right part of the island etc etc.).

Could you please recommend a place for good pelagics towards the end of the year, somewhere between HK and UK?

Cheers,

SineTwo

Hi,

I would have thought that a liveaboard in the Maldives would be your best bet, or maybe South Africa but it's the wrong time of year for the sardine run.

Having said that, even in the right season and the right area, I still didn't see a whaleshark in the Maldives during my last trip!

Cheers,

Matt

I wouldn’t call the Maldives the place for big Pelagics. That time of year the Red Sea wouldn’t be a bad choice. That isn’t the time for the sardine run at aliwal shoal(June/July). 11-14 hours from the UK will get you to the pacific and it won’t be that far for your friend.

Rick

the Baa Atoll in the Maldives will have mantas until about October, and you can still see sharks on some dives (as well as the occasional whale shark). As an aside - not sure what Rick was referring to - I've been to the Baa Atoll 3 times and it's both very fishy and has always delivered mantas during this part of the year.

Marovo Lagoon, Solomons - large number of sharks, both mantas and mobula rays, large schools of fish.

the Baa Atoll in the Maldives will have mantas until about October, and you can still see sharks on some dives (as well as the occasional whale shark). As an aside - not sure what Rick was referring to - I've been to the Baa Atoll 3 times and it's both very fishy and has always delivered mantas during this part of the year.

 

Marovo Lagoon, Solomons - large number of sharks, both mantas and mobula rays, large schools of fish.

 

 

I guess it comes down to definition of big Pelagics. We see mantas in the Maldives every year. Last year we had 9 with us most of a dive. We had a couple dives with 100+ sharks. We saw mobular rays, tuna, and other cruisers. All of those are typical pelagic species. But, if I were going on a trip to focus on those types, the Maldives probably wouldnt be my first choice. The mantas are seasonal and location dependent, plus the manta diving or more cleaning sites. The sharks are 3-4m grey reef sharks which while cool are not big ocean going sharks like I think of for pelagics. You might see a handful of tuna in a two week trip, almost always in singles.

No doubt the Maldives is very fishy. Reef fish schools (snappers, jacks, others) in the thousands in plenty of places. Smaller colourful reef fish uncountable. It just isnt the place I think of when someone says pelagics.

Thanks,

Rick

Huh, 4m grey reef sharks? what did you smoke Rick?

Rick,

Well... when you look up the top 10 dive locations for Pelagics the list looks something like (taken from two different sites):

Socorro (not between HK & UK, unless you go the other way around)

S. Africa (as mentioned, wrong time of year for Sardine Run)

Mozambique (just hit by a massive cyclone)

Guadelupe (wrong direction...)

Galapagos (wrong direction...)

Palau (disagree w/this one on the list)

Maldives (as I mentioned...)

Cocos and Malpelo (would be my first choice, done them both, but wrong direction)

Red Sea (already mentioned)

As for you experience in the Maldives - I've had several whale shark encounters in the Baa Atoll along with the mantas, and several different shark species (not just grey reefies).

 

Red Sea (already mentioned)

 

For pelagic the best spot would be a Sudan liveaboard

Great, thanks for the advice everyone, we've decided on Maldives or Mayanmar/Burma (as none of us has never been to the latter).

Seems to be the easiest for everyone really.