1. Rocktail Bay, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
The water in
the Maputaland Marine Reserve can be on the cool side, but there are
plenty of tropical fish and excellent chances of seeing some really big
pelagic species. Rocktail Bay Lodge
has the only dive boat on this stretch of fabulous coast, and I even
saw bottle-nosed dolphins and humpback whales on the way to the dive
site. Clive and Darryl, the dive team, now send me regular emails
detailing their encounters with everything from whale sharks and even
tiger sharks, as well the more endearing species such as clownfish and
manta rays. Between November and February you will see nesting
leatherback turtles along the wild sandy shores of Manzengwenya.
2. Rangiroa, Polynesia
Few
places have captured my imagination like Polynesia, and the beautiful
islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago about 250 miles from Tahiti felt
incredibly remote. Rangiroa means "Long Sky" and it is the second
largest atoll in the world. Two passes, or channels, named Tiputa and
Avatoru, allow the Pacific into and out of the lagoon twice daily when
the tides turn. I remember being carried through by the incoming tide
and sharing the ride with scores of grey reef sharks, dolphins, mantas
and sometimes large hammerhead sharks, too. It is high adrenalin
diving, but above water, the atoll is one of the most laidback places
in the world.
3. Sulawesi, Indonesia
The
dive sites around the small cluster of islands off the tip of Sulawesi
have some of the greatest marine biodiversity on Earth. I spent most of
my time here looking for pygmy seahorses, but there are more fish,
nudibranchs, flat worms and healthy corals than anyone can name, not to
mention the chance of bigger things swimming in from the blue. The
Bunaken National Marine Park is a world leader in sustainable tourism
with every diver paying a park fee that is shared among local
communities. Staying with the eccentric but lovable fish-obsessed
Christianne Muller and her team at Froggies Divers on Bunaken is
unforgettable, with communal dinners each night where everyone talks
about the day's diving, fish, sharks and where they will dive tomorrow.
4. The Maldives
The best way to see the Maldives is on a
dedicated live-aboard boat: you get as many as four dives a day and it
works out good value for money. From May until September (during the
south-west monsoon) you are pretty much guaranteed to see manta rays
but they are there all year round. North Male atoll and South Ari atoll
provide reliably good diving around the atoll walls, with healthy
numbers of sharks, turtles and schooling game fish as well as all the
small colourful reef life you expect to see. The Maldives still have
the best all-round diving in the Indian Ocean, and I feel the adventure
begins the minute I get picked up from the airport for a speedboat ride
to the dive boat.
5. Komodo National Park, Indonesia
Massive currents, huge fish, pygmy seahorses and even dragons. Now easily accessible with nearby airport and piers - this is some of the most amazing diving (and non-diving) available anywhere in the world.
6. Cocos and Malpelo, Eastern Pacific
These
two isolated islands are visited only by divers and members of the
Costa Rican and Colombian coast guard. I have never heard of anyone
going to Cocos and not seeing schools of hammerhead sharks, nocturnal
feeding frenzies by white tip reef sharks and silky sharks. Both
islands are marine reserves and have their own endemic land and marine
species. The islands are stunningly beautiful, and their isolation
gives them a degree of protection. Big schools of tuna and jacks come
swooping in from the blue and there are more than two dozen endemic
fish species on Cocos alone, including the weird looking red-lipped
batfish. The only way to visit the islands is on a dedicated safari
boat such as the Undersea Hunter.
7. The Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea
I happen to like coral
and sponges and sea slugs and all the weirdly shaped micro-creatures
that crawl, slither and hop along the reefs. That is why I love the
“fertile triangle” of the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
(PNG), where marine biodiversity is the highest on the planet. Getting
to PNG from Europe is a long slog, and once in Port Moresby you need to
fly on to New Britain Island, but the diving makes up for it. Night
diving on the offshore sea mounts rising from the abyss in the Bismarck
Sea cured me of my fear of being in the sea at night. Apart from the
big stuff, you will see squat lobsters and sponge crabs, dwarf scorpion
fish and pygmy seahorses. Some of the best shore diving in the world is
accessible from the Walindi Plantation Resort in Kimbe Bay, where
biologists have identified more than 800 marine species.
8. Sipadan Island, Malaysian Borneo
Malaysia’s
only oceanic island is a tiny dot in the South China Sea. Underwater it
is a magnet for fish: schools of barracuda, trevally and horse-eye
jacks swarm over the reefs, which are also home to dozens of breeding
hawksbill and green turtles. The turtles are accustomed to divers and I
have never found a better place to get up close to these gentlest of
reptiles. Shark encounters are reliably good here, though the currents
can be strong and I would not recommend Sipadan for inexperienced
divers. Close by, the reefs of Mabul and Kapalai are fantastic for
spotting rare mandarin fish (I saw them mating at dusk), sea wasps and
lots of nudibranchs.
9. Surin and Similan Islands, Thailand
Close
to the border between Thai and Burmese waters lie a string of islands
in the Andaman Sea. There is an element of “wilderness diving”
hereabouts and a huge choice of little visited dive sites. At Koh Bon,
the pinnacle rises from the ocean depths and attracts groups of feeding
game-fish as well as whale sharks, mantas and leopard sharks. Richelieu
Rock is a similarly rich site, world famous among experienced divers
for the plethora of macro-life inhabiting its coral encrusted slopes.
10. Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands
This
is shipwreck heaven. I am not a big fan of wreck diving but I would
still put Bikini Atoll very near the top of my wishlist. Halfway
between Australia and Honolulu, the Marshall Islands have some of the
least explored diving sites on the planet. Bikini Atoll, famously used
as an atomic test site in the 1950s is the resting place of several
warships including the USS Saratoga – an aircraft carrier longer than
the Titanic. Because the island itself is uninhabited (contaminated by
radiation), Bikini lagoon has become an unofficial marine reserve where
the fish life is stunning. For 10 years a small number of scuba divers
have been allowed to dive on the sunken war ships – including a
Japanese submarine and several US Navy destroyers. It is the kind of
place divers dream of – at a price.
