Scuba Diving Ils de Pins, New Caledonia – Faille de Noupa, Ils de Pins, New Caledonia

Dive Site: Faille de Noupa
Location: Ils de Pins, New Caledonia
Description: Reef
Depth: 11 – 45 metres (36 – 148 feet)
Visibility: 30 metres + (100 feet)

Faille de Noupa dive site is a 15 minute boat ride from the Kunie Scuba Centre at Vao. The local Melanesian inhabitants still refer to the island as Kunie, the local name of the Ils de Pins (Isle of Pines). The short journey to the site was made on an 11 metre ridged inflatable before being dropped over a large reef plateau of around 11 metres depth. At the edge of the plateau the wall drops down to a maximum depth of 45 metres where there is a sand sea floor with large coral heads. On the reef wall itself there are large red gorgonian fan corals and the viz is excellent at a good 30 metres or more. Tuna and trevally hang in the open water and dense groups of small chromis and damselfish swim all over the upper reef slopes. At the ascent over the plateau where there are layer upon layer of stunning blue acropora and stony corals; oranges, blues, pinks and yellows glisten in the sun which easily penetrated to 10 metres.

After many of the morning dives from Ils de Pins divers can head for a surface interval in the ‘blue lagoon’, the worlds largest natural lagoon. The light blue water is almost blinding and the sheer size astounding. Whilst here, it is possible to wade from the boat to the small sandy beaches which surround the lagoon.

Scuba Diving in the Red Sea

Dive Site: Sinai House Reef
Location: Dahab
Description: Reef / shore / night dive
Depth: 18 metres max (60 feet)
Visibility: 10 metres (30 feet)

Diving with Sinai Divers located in the Hilton, the friendly dive Center is located just off the beach and a 10-dive package entitles you to 5 free dives on the house reef. Entrance to the site is from the beach, starting in the confined area designed for training purposes. The sandy slope drops off to about 15m with patches of sea grass, anchors, tyres, broken pots and other things designed to encourage reef life. There is also a natural reef about 15 minute swim from the shore. The visibility is fairly poor, due to the tidal currents within the lagoon, however it is well worth the effort with a good variation in sealife.

This dive was best done at dusk, before the Center shuts, as this is when the fish are out hunting, lionfish come out from their home in the tyre to start hunting, and trevally and jacks are rounding up shoals of smaller fish into the shallows.The elusive seahorse within the seagrass patches at about 6m. The seagrass also provides a home for pipefish and pepper morays, with yellow moth morays found within the reef itself. Flounders, hermit crabs and goatfish can also be found feeding on the sandy seabed.

Scuba Diving in the Red Sea

Dive Site: Siyul Kebira
Location: 27°33.330N; 33°52.650E
Description: Reef
Depth: 36 metres max (118 feet)
Visibility: 30 metres (100 feet)

Near the island of Big Siyul, this is a patchy reef split by wadis that give rise to currents, resulting in a slight drift dive. The reef itself is excellent in places, with abundant hard and soft coral, glassfish, lionfish, schools of sweetlips and butterflyfish. Look out for larger fish beyond the reef.

Siyul is the name of the Island which the reef surrounds and Kebira in Arabic roughly translates as “Large”. There are two islands here both called Siyul and the second smaller island in known as Small Siyul – Siyul Saghira.

These dive sites are of the lesser dived sites in the Red Sea, visited only by safari boats and then normally on days when the weather is too rough to dive the wrecks at Abu Nuhas, located around 20 minutes boat ride to the northeast. They are never the less lovely sites.

The boats will normally moor on the south side of the island reef. Most safari boats these days have a RIB or tender and this should be used to enhance the dive. Avoid “out and back dives” as both the coral quality and viz are not as good on the south side. The tender can drop you quite far around the east side of the reef towards the north wall. It is much deeper here so make sure you locate the reef as a reference for descent before you leave the surface and then head with the reef on your right side back towards your boat mooring. The further round the reef you get dropped, the deeper the bottom slopes away. On a flat calm day it is possible to request the boat moors on the north side where the wall falls away at a more vertical angle. If being dropped for around a 50 minute dive time (time to get back to the boat with no assisting current) you will find yourself in around 30 metres of water on a reef slope which gradually tapers up to around 15 metres or slowly drops away to around 50m. It is possible to see leopard sharks resting on the sandy bottom in around 12-15m of water. Make sure you look closely – it’s surprisingly easy to miss these creatures, especially when they hide amongst the hard coral. When you reach the southeast tip there is an “erg” or extra piece of reef which you will pass by. This is literally teeming with small fish life and soft coral and great for photographs. Thousands of corinthias and glassfish literally cover this erg, and small shoals of butterflyfish and Red Sea bannerfish gently swim by. If you have time it is worth spending the latter part of you dive here and then ascending up to 3 metres and following the main reef (right shoulder) back to your boat on the south side.

Siyul Kebira Southwest

The west side of the reef is very different to the east side, with a deeper drop off and more vertical wall the further round you go. There are some lovely black whip corals around the 30m mark and the sea bed flattens off around the 40m mark further round to the north.

The tender can drop you around to the northwest of the reef where you will then head with the reef on your left shoulder back to the main boat. Look out for tuna and trevellay at the start of the dive in the deeper area and if you are lucky enough to have some current here it should run north to south and make for a soft drift dive. There are table corals and gorgonian fans on the west tip and a couple of ergs which have a proliferation of glassfish.

Scuba Diving in the Red Sea

Dive Site: Sinai House Reef
Location: Dahab
Description: Reef / shore / night dive
Depth: 18 metres max (60 feet)
Visibility: 10 metres (30 feet)

Diving with Sinai Divers located in the Hilton, it is friendly dive Center that is located just off the beach and a 10-dive package entitles you to 5 free dives on the house reef. Entrance to the site is from the beach, starting in the confined area designed for training purposes. The sandy slope drops off to about 15m with patches of sea grass, anchors, tyres, broken pots and other things designed to encourage reef life. There is also a natural reef about 15 minute swim from the shore. The visibility is fairly poor, due to the tidal currents within the lagoon, however it is well worth the effort with a good variation in sealife.

This dive was best done at dusk, before the Center shuts, as this is when the fish are out hunting, lionfish come out from their home in the tyre to start hunting, and trevally and jacks are rounding up shoals of smaller fish into the shallows. The elusive seahorse within the seagrass patches at about 6m. The seagrass also provides a home for pipefish and pepper morays, with yellow moth morays found within the reef itself. Flounders, hermit crabs and goatfish can also be found feeding on the sandy seabed.

Scuba Diving in Fiji

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.

Scuba Diving in Fury Shoals, Marsa Alam, the Red Sea

Dive Site: Sha’ab Maksour
Location: Fury Shoals, Marsa Alam
Description: Reef / drop off
Depth: 40 metres + (120 feet)
Visibility: 30 metres (100 feet)

The zodiac dropped us off early morning into the deep blue. Large gorgonian sea fans protruded delicately out with a profusion of anthias around them. Here a yellow margin triggerfish was having a feeding frenzy with some rabbitfish. When you come to the corner of the wall the dive becomes shallower to 15m and there are six pinnacles you can swim around. Make this your turning point and swim back up the wall at a shallower depth. Towards the end of the dive we just hung in a gulley watching a pair of big eyed emperors fighting with a trevally.

A second dive here and this time was moored over the pinnacles so as usual drop onto them but firstly diverted to the blue just to check for an unlikely shark! It was good to spend the dive on the pinnacles the second time round. There was a humphead wrasse which is always a nice Red Sea treat. There was a very slight current around some of the pinnacles.

Scuba Diving in Fiji

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.

Scuba Diving in the Red Sea – Siyul Kebira reef

Dive Site: Siyul Kebira
Location: 27°33.330N; 33°52.650E
Description: Reef
Depth: 36 metres max (118 feet)
Visibility: 30 metres (100 feet)

Near the island of Big Siyul, this is a patchy reef split by wadis that give rise to currents, resulting in a slight drift dive. The reef itself is excellent in places, with abundant hard and soft coral, glassfish, lionfish, schools of sweetlips and butterflyfish.Larger fish can be found beyond the reef.

Siyul Kebira Southeast

Siyul is the name of the Island which the reef surrounds and Kebira in Arabic roughly translates as “Large”. There are two islands here both called Siyul and the second smaller island in known as Small Siyul – Siyul Saghira.

These dive sites are of the lesser dived sites in the Red Sea, visited only by safari boats and then normally on days when the weather is too rough to dive the wrecks at Abu Nuhas, located around 20 minutes boat ride to the northeast. They are never the less lovely sites.

The boats will normally moor on the south side of the island reef. Most safari boats these days have a RIB or tender and this should be used to enhance the dive. The tender can drop divers quite far around the east side of the reef towards the north wall. It is much deeper here so it is advisable to make sure to locate the reef as a reference for descent before one leaves the surface and then head with the reef on the right side back towards the boat mooring. The further round the reef one get dropped, the deeper the bottom slopes away. On a flat calm day it is possible to request the boat moors on the north side where the wall falls away at a more vertical angle. If being dropped for around a 50 minute dive time one can find in around 30 metres of water on a reef slope which gradually tapers up to around 15 metres or slowly drops away to around 50m. It is possible to see leopard sharks resting on the sandy bottom in around 12-15m of water. At the southeast tip there is an “erg” or extra piece of reef. This is literally teeming with small fish life and soft coral and great for photographs. Thousands of corinthias and glassfish literally cover this erg, and small shoals of butterflyfish and Red Sea bannerfish gently swim by. If time permits it is worth spending the latter part of the dive here and then ascending up to 3 metres and following the main reef (right shoulder) back to the boat on the south side.

Siyul Kebira Southwest

Marine life consists of tuna and trevally at the start of the dive in the deeper area and if lucky enough to have some current here it should run north to south and make for a soft drift dive. There are table corals and gorgonian fans on the west tip and a couple of ergs which have a proliferation of glassfish.

A drop off occurs nearby, and a small coral head on this drop off is the location of a coral cave at 37m with many vase sponges in white. Coming back up along the plateau the first of 3 coral ergs is encountered, covered in glassfish and sweepers. The large black coral grouper guards them well under the large healthy acropora table coral. A large gorgonian fan coral and many soft teddy bear corals complete the picture.

From here, swimming with the main reef wall on the right, two more slightly shallower ergs are found and after this last one a place where many bannerfish and butterflyfish congregate. Usually it is possible to get back to the moored boat from here.

Scuba Diving in Grenada Caribbean

Site: Rum Runner / Windmill Reef
Location: Off Point Salines, St Georges
Description: Catamaran
Depth: 34 metres
Visibility: 20 metres

The Rum Runner is a brilliantly relaxed dive full of interesting marine life. You drop onto a colourful reef covered with swaying orange Sea Plumes, Stony and Plate Corals. Descend down the reef slope to the Rum Runner where you are greeted by three very large and friendly Queen Angelfish. You can slowly explore the catamaran which is encrusted in Sponge and Gorgonian Sea Sprays. It was lucky enough to find a massive Green Moray Eel under one of the hulls but It also viewed him whole free swimming rather than just a head with a gapping mouth. Then after playing with a few lizard fish retreated back up to Windmills Reef’s plateau at around 20m. The Purple Creole wrasse were shooting about everywhere, a Trevally engulfed a bait fish in one, six Barracuda were hanging in the current and a Hawksbill Turtle joined me for the final part of my dive and safety stop.

Scuba Diving in Panglao Island, Bohol, the Philippines

Dive Site: Rudy’s Rock
Location: 09°30.828N; 123°40.838E (Balicasag Island, Bohol, Philippines)
Description: Wall dive
Depth: 3 – 35 metres (10 – 115 feet). Most interesting at 15m (50′), not so interesting below
30m (100′)
Visibility: 12 – 20 metres (40 – 65 feet)

Easy dive site for PADI Open Water divers or higher with a current range of 0 – 1 knots.

Start the dive with the wall on the left shoulder going in the direction of exit point from Black Forest, or have the wall on your right shoulder going in the direction to Rico’s Wall. Deep drop-off wall on the southwest side of Balicasag Island. The land orientation is marked with a stick in shallow water in front of the beach.

Soft and hard corals, small caverns and crevices. Often schools of big eye trevally (Caranx Sexfasciatus) swimming in circles like a tornado as well as midnight snapper (Macolor Macularis) swimming among sweetlips (Haemilidae Family).