Dive Site: Petaj
Location: Milln Reef, Cairns (16°47’S 146°16′)
Description: Reef
Depth: 5 – 20 metres (16 – 65 feet)
Visibility: 15 – 20 metres (50 – 65 feet)
Home to resident sea turtles and white tipped reef sharks, Petaj is an exciting site with some great swim-throughs. The wall of the main ‘bommie’ is an excellent place to search for tiny, yet colourful nudibranchs, sergeant majors, squirrel fish, Maori wrasse, slipper lobster and pufferfish – a delight for photographers.
Dive Site: Breath Taker
Location: Thakau Vatu Latha (Sail Rock Reef), 10 minutes northwest of Nananu-i-Ra
Description: Reef
Depth: 18 – 35 metres (60 – 115 feet)
Visibility: 15 – 25 metres (50 – 80 feet)
This dive site consists of two distinct sections, which are often referred to separately as Golden Dreams and Shark Junction.
Several bommies stand apart from the main reef with bottoms at 18m. These make up the shallower Golden Dreams, named because of the abundant yellow dendronepthya soft coral and orange anthias which blanket them.
This is a soft coral lovers paradise and is quite simply breath taking. There are not enough adjectives and superlatives to describe this dive, which is suitable for all levels of divers despite the ever present, nutrient-rich, current which runs through it. Initial peaks from the surface always yield whoops and shrieks of what is hinted at and even amateur snappers with disposal underwater cameras come away with shots that will impress their diving friends.
Thousands of fusiliers, thousands of orange and purple anthias, hundreds of unicornfish, schooling sergeant majors and several varieties of parrotfish all conspire to shield the reef from the diver’s view. It is quite literally fish soup. But even if the fish weren’t there it would still be a heavenly soft coral dive. What a reef they hide! There is very little bare limestone here and new growth plate corals really have a hard time competing with their softer counterparts.
Where the furthest bommie of Golden Dreams slopes off to 60m+ a curving spur of coral juts out into the blue. In part due to the sheer volume of ‘stuff’ on Golden Dreams, most divers visit this section as a separate dive altogether. With its top at 18m it acts as a breaker in the strong current for a multitude of fish. The lee side is where the huge coral trout hang out and where the white tips sleep. The more buffeted side of the spur is where the action is though.
A 30m dive along this spur will take the more experienced diver through schools of red bass, big eye trevally, chevron barracuda and the ever-present fusiliers. Somewhere along the spur you will almost certainly encounter the resident Shark Trust-registered grey reef sharks and if you’re lucky you may also spot eagle ray and manta rays.
Dive Site: El Acuarium (the Aquarium)
Location: Maria la Gorda, Cuba
Description: Reef
Depth: 8 metres max (26 feet)
Visibility: 15 – 20 metres (50 – 65 feet)
A very aptly named site that was a relaxing dive. Because of the patchy reef, the sheer numbers of reef fish and the shallow depth – averaging 3 to 5 metres deep. Amongst the sea fans and sponges, flamingo tongues can be found and arrow crabs on the gorgonians. This dive site is a good opportunity to look at the reef fish in detail, rather than being on the hunt for the bigger stuff and with shoals of sergeant majors, Nassau grouper, chromis, tangs, snapper, goatfish, lobsters, large crabs and trumpetfish.
Dive Site: Seven Sisters
Location: Beqa Lagoon, Coral Coast
Description: Reef
Depth: 12 metres (39 feet) on reef wall, 26 metres (85 feet) to seabed
Visibility: 25 metres (80 feet)
The Seven Sisters are pinnacles just off of the main circular reef. The coral on this dive is exceptional. There is soft coral, fan coral and the fish life is also excellent, with lots of clown fish, fusiliers and sergeant majors. The coral forms pinnacles that you can swim between and there are predators such as trevally and mackerel.
Dive Site: Maria la Gorda Beach
Location: Maria la Gorda, Cuba
Description: Snorkelling site
Depth: 0 – 15 metres (0 – 50 feet)
Visibility: 15 metres (50 feet)
One of the great things about Maria la Gorda is the fantastic snorkelling that you can do in between dives. Almost unbelievably, there are fish right up to the waters edge. They start off tiny in size with sergeant majors only a few centimetres long, but as you head away from the sand the nurseries give way to adult fish with goatfish, wrasse, triggerfish and parrotfish rooting about looking for food. Further out still the sand is broken up by patchy reef that quickly turns into a fully fledged coral garden. There are a number of pontoons jutting out from the beach into the water which are also covered in coral and home to many Christmas tree worms, small crabs and hermit crabs. The cracks formed in the older, more dilapidated of the pontoons make great hiding places for grunts and other fish. Out on the reef across a shoal of hundreds of silvery fish with a stocky barracuda in the Center. The shoal parted and let the barracuda through then followed just behind it as though they thought that somehow the barracuda wouldn’t be able to spot them there. The barracuda got more and more irate until it turned around and darted back into the shoal.
Dive Site: Yadua Pinnacles
Location: Yadua Island, the Mamanucas
Description: Reef / wall
Depth: 24 metres (79 feet)
Visibility: 25 metres (80 feet)
In the horseshoe created by the reef that protrudes from the southeastern point of Yadua Island in the Mamanucas there are four pinnacles. The top of the pinnacles are covered in multi-coloured plate and staghorn corals, suffused with various varieties of anemone and their resident clownfish. There are usually schools of sergeant majors and drum up here too and on a sunny day it is heaven.The pinnacles bottom is at around 24m. The base of each of the pinnacles is covered in gorgonian fan corals and photographers can while away their time getting that perfect silhouette shot. Macro lovers will find plenty of nudibranchs and shrimp and a lone monster hammerhead if lucky.
Dive Site: Breath Taker
Location: Thakau Vatu Latha (Sail Rock Reef), 10 minutes northwest of Nananu-i-Ra
Description: Reef
Depth: 18 – 35 metres (60 – 115 feet)
Visibility: 15 – 25 metres (50 – 80 feet)
This dive site consists of two distinct sections, which are often referred to separately as Golden Dreams and Shark Junction.
Several bommies stand apart from the main reef with bottoms at 18m. These make up the shallower Golden Dreams, named because of the abundant yellow dendronepthya soft coral and orange anthias which blanket them.
This is a soft coral lovers paradise and is quite simply breath taking. There are not enough adjectives and superlatives to describe this dive, which is suitable for all levels of divers despite the ever present, nutrient-rich, current which runs through it. Initial peaks from the surface always yield whoops and shrieks of what is hinted at and even amateur snappers with disposal underwater cameras come away with shots that will impress their diving friends.
Thousands of fusiliers, thousands of orange and purple anthias, hundreds of unicornfish, schooling sergeant majors and several varieties of parrotfish all conspire to shield the reef from the diver’s view. It is quite literally fish soup. But even if the fish weren’t there it would still be a heavenly soft coral dive. There is very little bare limestone here and new growth plate corals really have a hard time competing with their softer counterparts.
Where the furthest bommie of Golden Dreams slopes off to 60m+ a curving spur of coral juts out into the blue. In part due to the sheer volume of ‘stuff’ on Golden Dreams, most divers visit this section as a separate dive altogether. With its top at 18m it acts as a breaker in the strong current for a multitude of fish. The lee side is where the huge coral trout hang out and where the white tips sleep. The more buffeted side of the spur is where the action is though.
A 30m dive along this spur will take the more experienced diver through schools of red bass, big eye trevally, chevron barracuda and the ever-present fusiliers. Somewhere along the spur you will almost certainly encounter the resident Shark Trust-registered grey reef sharks and if you’re lucky you may also spot eagle and manta rays.
Dive Site: Arco Point
Location: 09°33.486N; 123°48.578E (Libaong, Panglao Island, Bohol, Philippines)
Description: Steep slope and wall dive
Depth: 4 – 27 metres (13 – 89 feet). Most interesting at 10 – 15m (30 – 50′), not so interesting below 30m (100′)
Visibility: 10 – 25 metres (30 – 80 feet)
Start the dive with the wall on the right shoulder, going southwest. After circa 30 minutes of diving the steep slope, ascend to 10m. At the beginning of the dive is a hole in the wall. Enter the cave in small groups from the wall side. The drift is always going in a southerly direction, it can be strong sometimes.
The cave is teeming with cardinal fish and sergeant majors (Abudefduf vaigiensis) waiting to be fed. Inside the cave on the east are white-eyed moray eels (Siderea thyrsoidea), and two black-finned snake eels (Ophichthus melanochir). Well hidden around the top entrance at 8m, are sometimes the raggy scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis venosa). Along the wall are groupers, wrasse and butterflyfishes. At the end of the dive when the slope starts look in the shallows for angelfish or frogfish, between 5 and 10m.
Dive Site: Angelfish Reef
Location: Just off Goat Island
Description: Reef / drift / night dive
Depth: 21 metres (69 feet)
Visibility: 20 metres (65 feet)
This site at night was not overly impress. A couple of big lobsters at the start of the dive and a sleeping parrotfish and a baby pufferfish. The current pick up and dive became quite a good drift. Diving this site in the day was much better. A few barracuda, some trumpetfish, sergeant majors and a Spanish hogfish. There were some nice French angelfish at the end.
Dive Site: El Acuarium (the Aquarium)
Location: Maria la Gorda, Cuba
Description: Reef
Depth: 8 metres max (26 feet)
Visibility: 15 – 20 metres (50 – 65 feet)
A very aptly named site that was a relaxing dive. Because of the patchy reef, the sheer numbers of reef fish and the shallow depth – averaging 3 to 5 metres deep – you could really believe that you were swimming inside a very large fish tank. The dive began with two tiny squid propelling themselves past us. Amongst the sea fans and sponges there were a few flamingo tongues on the gorgonians and an arrow crab attempting to hide. In the distance a 2 metre long Nassau grouper was lurking. This dive site was a good opportunity to look at the reef fish in detail, rather than being on the hunt for the bigger stuff and with shoals of sergeant majors, chromis, tangs, snapper, goatfish, lobsters, large crabs and trumpetfish, there was plenty to take in.
Scubster 