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06.06.2021 16:52:09
There are some many different types of dives available, for different experience levels. From ice diving in the colder seas and oceans to cave diving, one of the most mysterious allures. [links]
See full version: The Top 12 Best Places to Scuba Dive in The World
There are some many different types of dives available, for different experience levels. From ice diving in the colder seas and oceans to cave diving, one of the most mysterious allures. [links]
If that alone isn’t enough to make you want to start scuba diving, I don’t know what is. [links]
Whether you are looking for somewhere to try to this adventure sport for the very first time, or what to take a specialty course to help improve your dive skills.
On any dive, there is a lot to see. Sometimes you’ll come across absolutely huge rays dozing in the sand. more
The ocean covers 71 percent of our Earth’s surface. The ocean contains 97 percent of the planet’s water alone. Yet, over 95 percent of the underwater world remains unexplored. [links]
Blue holes, caves, sunken Spanish galleons, dolphins, and top of the list on many divers’ itineraries, the wetsuit-fillingly awesome close encounters with Tiger Sharks.
The Maldives [links]
The Red Sea has lots of wrecks to explore here
The Indonesian Republic consists of more than 13,000 islands, each having its own distinct identity both above and below the water. As part of the Coral Triangle – regarded by marine experts as the most biodiverse habitat in the world’s oceans – Indonesia could easily lay claim to the top-ten best dives all by itself, but Raja Ampat, Alor and Komodo National Park rank among the best. Raja Ampat, located off the coast of New Guinea, is home to more than 75 per cent of all known coral species and more than 1,500 species of fish, often congregating in massive numbers with sharks and other pelagics regularly sighted among them. The island of Alor is famous for schools of hammerheads, along with a plethora of critters from the monstrous to the minute, a place for both wide-angle lenses and macro in the muck. Komodo National Park, which one respondent described as making 'Malaysia, Hawaii, Egypt [and] Thailand look dead', also provides an excellent opportunity to discover the best of both worlds. Although there are sheltered spots for novices, the islands are all prone to very strong currents, so a little bit of experience under the weight-belt is essential for enjoying everything these three particular locations have to offer.
Best dived from a liveaboard out of Phuket / Khao Lak, although some of the closer islands can be visited on a daily boat trip particularly from Koh Lanta. Spectacular in every respect and the sea mount of Richelieu Rock should be in every diver’s want-to-go places. Best diving is from October to May. [links]
The Cenotes are one of the most stunning dive sites in Mexico
Divers up for the ultimate seamount experiences often look to the Eastern Pacific, where a massive undersea range called the Eastern Pacific Rise stretches from Mexico to Antarctica, including the Socorros to Cocos Island and the Galapagos.
Volcanic hot spots are fixed areas where lava breaks through the earth’s crust as tectonic plates slide over the top. They build seamounts from the ground up, with lava oozing from the seafloor and hardening in cold water, building higher and higher for eons until the plates shift and they start all over again. In this way, the entire Hawaiian Island chain was created as a string of seamounts — right now there’s a new seamount, called Loihi, forming south of the Big Island, still some 3,000 feet below the surface. [links]
Divable seamounts are found throughout the world’s oceans, from the Princess Alice Banks in the mid- Atlantic to the Red Sea’s Daedalus Reef to Hin Muang in Thailand’s Andaman Sea. But the Pacific Ocean is the seamount hot spot, literally, thanks to the vast ring of volcanic activity beneath the seafloor. here
"Seamount” and “pinnacle” are words that get divers’ blood pumping. These open-ocean peaks rise from the inky depths, either breaking the water’s surface or stopping just below it. They offer a bluewater dive experience, often with some of the underwater world’s greatest big-animal encounters. Spots like the Socorros off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula are the mere tips of massive undersea mountains, swirled by great Pacific currents that draw everything from planktonic food to pelagic hunters.
Pelagics like this manta in the Revillagigedos are attracted to seamounts. [links]
Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands, aka Socorros, includes bucket list worthy seamount diving.
The Yongala sank off the coast of Queensland during a cyclone in 1911, killing 122 people, a racehorse called Moonshine and a red Lincolnshire bull. She had no telegraph facilities and so could not be warned of the weather ahead. In 1981 the Yongala was given official protection under the Historic Shipwrecks Act: divers are not allowed into the wreck. The ship is 90 km southeast of Townsville, 10 km away from Cape Bowling Green. 109 meters long, the bow points north and the ship lists to starboard. Compare prices of Yongala diving trips.
Vote for your top wreck dives in the comments box below
Motorbikes on the Thistlegorm. Photo credit: Tim Nicholson