Our Favourite Coral Dives
Radiant soft corals swaying in the shallows. A cliff’s edge staggered by paper-thin plate formations. Everyone’s got their favourites, but our team cast their votes and chose a few of the world’s top dive sites for a pristine coral reef experience. Did your favourite make the list? Underwater360 lists out our favourite coral sites around the world.
A field of fragile staghorn as far as the eye can see. Radiant soft corals swaying in the shallows. A cliff’s edge staggered by paper-thin plate formations. Everyone’s got their favourites, but our team cast their votes and chose a few of the world’s top dive sites for a pristine coral reef experience. Did your favourite make the list? Underwater360 lists out our favourite coral sites around the world.
AMERICAS
1.
Dive Site: Palancar Horseshoe
Type: ‘Amphitheatre’, tunnels, crevices
Encounters: Moray eels, turtles
Location: Cozumel
Country: Mexico
2.
Dive Site: Blackish Point
Type: Reef wall
Encounters: Goliath groupers, rays, whale sharks
Location: Utila
Country: Honduras
3.
Dive Site: Half Moon Caye Wall
Type: Sheer reef wall
Encounters: Tarpon, eagle rays, loggerheads
Location: Lighthouse Reef Atoll
Country: Belize
4.
Dive Site: Bloody Bay Wall
Type: Vertical reef wall
Encounters: Turtles, reef sharks, Nassau groupers
Location: Little Cayman
Country: Cayman Islands
5.
Dive Site: Something Special
Type: Sloping reef
Encounters: Squid, rays, variety of frogfish
Location: Kralendijk Harbour
Country: Bonaire
AFRICA
6.
Dive Site: Ras Mohammed
Type: Sheer wall
Encounters: Soft corals, Napoleon wrasse
Location: Red Sea
Country: Egypt
SOUTHEAST ASIA
7.
Dive Site: Crystal Bay
Type: Slopes to deep
Encounters: Reef fish, Mola molas
Location: Nusa Penida, Bali
Country: Indonesia
8.
Dive Site: Blade
Type: Unusual reef ridge
Encounters: Schools, rays, pelagics
Location: Wakatobi
Country: Indonesia
9.
Dive Site: Magic Mountain
Type: Seamount reef hook dive
Encounters: Mantas, sharks, maybe dolphins
Location: Misool, Raja Ampat
Country: Indonesia
10.
Dive Site: Apo Island
Type: Gentle sloping reef
Encounters: Clownfish and anemone fields, fish schools
Location: Dumaguete
Country: Philippines
SOUTH ASIA
11.
Dive Site: Manta Point
Type: Atoll reef
Encounters: Mantas, sometimes in cyclone formations!
Location: North Malé Atoll
Country: Maldives
12.
Dive Site: Victory Wreck
Type: Shipwreck
Encounters: Groupers, sea turtles, schools of fish
Location: North Malé Atoll
Country: Maldives
OCEANIA
13.
Dive Site: Acropolis
Type: Hard corals
Encounters: Schooling reef fish, invertebrates, corals
Location: Great Barrier Reef, Queensland
Country: Australia
14.
Dive Site: Mbulo
Type: Double barrier reef
Encounters: Schooling reef fish, fields of corals, reef fish
Location: Mbolo Island
Country: Solomon Islands
15.
Dive Site: Rainbow Reef
Type: Vertical wall
Encounters: Legendary soft corals!
Location: Somosomo Strait
Country: Fiji
16.
Dive Site: Ulong Channel
Type: Sloping reef
Encounters: Reef sharks, large fish schools
Location: Ulong Island
Country: Palau
To read the rest of this article, check out our latest issue of Scuba Diver Issue 2/2019, Volume 115 here or download a digital copy here.