Diving locations - Definition and Overview

Most bodies of water can and are used for recreational diving including:

• seas and oceans - consist of salt water and a huge variety of flora and fauna. Among the favourites are:
  • Atlantic Ocean - temperate diving
  • Caribbean Sea - coral reefs and wide variety marine fauna
  • Indian Ocean - coral reefs and wide variety marine fauna
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Pacific Ocean - huge number of islands with coral reefs and wide variety marine fauna
  • Red Sea - one of the best tropical marine life diving areas
• lakes - small lakes are often used for diver training. Large lakes have many features of seas including wrecks and a variety of marine life.
• caves - these are more adventurous and dangerous than normal diving. See cave diving.
• rivers - are often shallow, murky and with strong currents

The following list of popular or interesting dive sites is shown by region, country and place.

Africa

• Egypt
  • Red Sea - fantastic tropical marine life
• Kenya - coral fringe reefs
• Mozambique - coral fringe reefs
• South Africa
  • Sodwana Bay - sharks and other tropical marine life
• Sudan
  • Red Sea - fantastic tropical marine life
• Tanzania - coral fringe reefs

Americas - North, Central and South

• Bahamas
• Belize
  • The Cays - remote coral islands
• Bonaire
• Canada
  • Coast of British Columbia
  • Great Lakes / Saint Lawrence Seaway - Ship wrecks

• Cayman Islands
• Cuba
• Martinique
• Mexico
  • Cozumel 20.5° N 86.9° W
• Tobago
• United States
  • Great Lakes - Ship wrecks
  • Pacific Northwest - The Puget Sound area has a huge amount of underwater life; it was reportedly one of the best places to dive by Jacques Cousteau

Australasia

• Australia
  • Byron Bay - Great mix of tropical and temperate marine life.
  • Coral sea - Better than Great Barrier Reef
  • Great Barrier Reef
  • Ningaloo Reef - Whale shark early in the year.
• Fiji
• India
  • Andaman Islands - many large fish due to isolated islands with little commercial fishing
• Indonesia - coral reefs and wide variety of marine fauna
  • Alor
  • Ambon
  • Bali
  • Flores
  • Sangalakki
  • Wakatobi
• Japan
  • Okinawa
• Malaysia
  • Layang-Layang - Hammer head sharks
  • Sipadan Island - remote drop off, pelagics and nice coral reef fish
  • Tioman Island - average reef diving
• Maldives - many small islands with tidal currents and great marine life
• Papua New Guinea - Untouched reefs, everything from muck to pelagics.
• Philippines
  • Busuanga Island or Coron - site of WWII Japanese wrecks from operation to retake Philippines
• Solomon Islands
  • Guadalcanal - site of American and Japanese wrecks
• Thailand
  • Pattaya
  • Phuket - Simmilan islands, Richelieu rock, good reef diving.

Pacific

• Cocos Island - Spectacular diving, pelagics, hammer head sharks.
• French Polynesia
• Galapagos Islands - Spectacular diving, pelagics, hammer head sharks.
• Micronesia
  • Palau - Blue corner, famous for Gray reef sharks
  • Truk Lagoon - site WWII Japanese wrecks of Operation Hailstone
  • Yap - Famous for Manta rays
• New Zealand
  • Bay of Islands
  • Cavalli Islands
  • Great Barrier Island
  • Poor Knights Islands - great sub-tropical marine life

Europe

• Britain
  • English Channel - extremely busy international water way with hundreds of wrecks
  • Scapa Flow - site the scuttling of the German Kaiserliche Marine High Seas Fleet of World War I
• Cyprus
• France
  • D-Day beaches - site of British and American WWII wrecks
• Greece
  • Aegean Sea
• Ireland
  • Skellig Islands - clear water and great variety of marine fauna
• Italy
• Norway
• Portugal
  • Madeira
• Spain
  • Canary Islands
• Turkey
  • Aegean Sea

Other diving regions

• Arctic ocean
• Antarctica
  • Little dived for recreational reasons. Mainly dived by scientific research organisations such as the British Antarctic Survey.