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Best Dive Sites: Top 15 Dives to Experience Before You Die -2

Best Dive Sites: Top 15 Dives to Experience Before You Die -2

Written by Noreen
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Published on February 23, 2010

If you missed our previous post of…

1. Best Cave/Cavern Dives – Cenotes of the Riviera Maya, Mexico
2. Best Wreck Dive – SS Yongala, Ayr, Australia
3. Best Wall Dive – Blue Corner Wall, Palau, Micronesia
4. Best Manta Ray Dive- Manta Ray Night Dive, Kailua Kona, Hawaii
5. Best Deep Dive – Lighthouse Reef- Blue Hole, Belize

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6. Best Drift DiveSanta Rosa Wall, Cozumel, Mexico

Ranked no. 1 by PADI as a top dive destination and featuring on almost every divers must-dive destination list, the island of Cozumel off the Mayan Coast of Mexico is a feast for any divers eyes. Famous for its drift diving, Cozumel is a lazy diver’s paradise with currents that range from gentle 1/2 knots near some dive sites to fast, strong currents only for experienced and adventurous drift divers.The Wall at the Santa Rosa Reef begins at 50 feet and drops straight away into the deep blue. The Santa Rosa Wall is an expansive reef filled with huge coral mounds and covered with giant sea fans, beds of tunicates, immense sponges, huge overhangs of stony corals and impressive caves and tunnels. The massive richly colored sponges line the wall that drops off to infinity. Visibility here is stunning and with the current doing most of the work all you need to do is fall into the water and let the currents carry you away, past a Technicolor reef scene that boasts a rainbow array of sponges and scads of unique fish. Look in cracks and crevices for the whiskered Splendid Toadfish, found nowhere else on Earth. (For more read: Paradise Reefs: Diving in Cozumel, Mexico)

7. Best Ice DiveMcMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Antarctica Scuba diving? Antarctica conjures up images of lots and lots of snow, ice, glaciers, penguins and very little to see, but one thing you would never imagine doing here is Scuba diving. Well, think again! In extreme temperatures that often drop below -40°C (-40°F), where no insects, plants nor major life exists here above the ground, people do the unthinkable and plunge into it’s icy waters! McMurdo Sound Antarctica is where divers break through the 1.3-3m (4-10ft) thick ice to enter the freezing cold waters, only to be rewarded by stunning visibility of about 300m (990 ft) and a rich marine life like no other anywhere else in the World. (For more read: Extreme Diving: Ice Diving in Antarctica)

8. Best Night DiveMaaya Thila, Maldives

The Maldives has no shortage of dive sites and always has a spot in the Top 10 dive destinations in the World. Maaya Thila off the Ari Atoll, is often singled out as the Number 1 site in the Maldives and at is rated one of the best spots in the World to experience at night. This one- of-a kind dive is most notable for its inspiring profusion of life including White Tip Reef Sharks, Turtles, Octopus,Moray Eels, Stone Fish, Cleaner Shrimps and the seldom seen Ghost Pipe Fish. The caves, overhangs and even a swim-throughs make the dive even more exciting with the vibrant colors of the soft coral coverage and the tubastrea coral. If you’re lucky you could even spot a guitar shark,a few hammerheads or spotted eagle rays.

9. Best Kelp DiveSan Clemente, Channel Islands, California

Sometimes called ‘the North American Galapagos’ or ‘the Fiji of America’, the Channel Islands made up of a chain of eight islands is one of the richest marine parks of the world. The southern most island of San Clemente absolute diver’s Mecca with it’s redwood- like Kelp forests teeming with sea lions, with the opportunity for divers to swim with them and observe the playful sea lions up close. Garibaldi in their bright colors contrasting against the kelp and Giant curious Sea Bass are common to these waters offering scuba divers a spectacular sight. Underwater photographers will have no dearth of subjects to snap away at in these clear waters. (For more read: Dive The Channel Islands California)

10. Best Coral Reef Life Dives Bunaken National Marine Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia

The diving possibilities around Sulawesi island are virtually limitless with 6,000 miles of coastline, however, the Bunaken National Marine Park off the north east tip of Sulawesi alone will keep most ardent divers happy. Often quoted among the world’s top ten dive destinations as the reef is in mint condition and houses almost everything there is in marine life. Pick any of group of interest – corals, fish, echinoderms or sponges – and the number of families, genera or species is bound to be astonishingly high here. The wall dives here are simply out of this world, you can’t help but notice the high concentration of schooling fish from drummers, fusiliers to brightly-colored anthias that you pass along the edge of the reef top and the clouds of pyramid butterflyfish and bannerfish underneath. The variety of reef fish is astounding: you could pick out over 20 species of butterflyfish alone if you so desired. The big fish too are not to be left out and one can encounter sharks , napoleon wrasses, bumphead parrotfish, giant trevally, jacks, batfish, giant barracuda and turtles out in the blue off the wall. Many inspirational underwater photos have been taken here, full of curious looking creatures. Dive here and you’ll be spoilt for the remainder of your diving life.

Continued in Best Dive Sites: Top 15 Dives to Experience Before You Die -3 which includes…

11. Best Big Fish Encounter Dive – Sipadan Island, Borneo, Malaysia
12. Best Shark Dive – Gansbaai, South Africa
13. Best Whale Shark Dive – Richelieu Rock, Koh Tachai, Thailand
14. Best Shore Dives – Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
15. Best Liveaboard Dives – Sharm El Sheik and Ras Mohammed, Egypt