Outline of recreational dive sites

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Recreational diver over a coral reef in the Red Sea
Satellite image of part of the Great Barrier Reef
Wreck of the Fujikawa Maru
USNS Vandenberg in 2015.
Wreck of the RMS Rhone
The wreck of the tugboat MV Rozi rests on the seabed at 35 meters
The wreck of Salem Express in 2010, 19 years after she sank.
Bow of the Spiegel Grove
Anti-aircraft gun on the stern of the Thistlegorm
Deck of the Um Al Faroud
Entrance to the cave system at Dos Ojos
Diving at Piccaninnie ponds
Wazee Lake near Black River Falls, Wisconsin is a former iron mining quarry now used for scuba diving and other uses.
Recreational dive sites of the greater Cape Town region. Most are in the Table Mountain National Par Marine Protected Area
NASA image showing locations of significant coral reefs, which are often sought out by divers for their abundant, diverse life forms.

Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this context all diving done for recreational purposes is included. Professional diving tends to be done where the job is, and with the exception of diver training and leading groups of recreational divers, does not generally occur at specific sites chosen for their easy access, pleasant conditions or interesting features.

Recreational dive sites may be found in a wide range of bodies of water, and may be popular for various reasons, including accessibility, biodiversity, spectacular topography, historical or cultural interest and artifacts (such as shipwrecks), and water clarity. Tropical waters of high biodiversity and colourful sea life are popular recreational diving tourism destinations. South-east Asia, the Caribbean islands, the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia are regions where the clear, warm, waters, reasonably predictable conditions and colourful and diverse sea life have made recreational diving an economically important tourist industry.

Recreational divers may accept a relatively high level of risk to dive at a site perceived to be of special interest. Wreck diving and cave diving have their adherents, and enthusiasts will endure considerable hardship, risk and expense to visit caves and wrecks where few have been before. Some sites are popular almost exclusively for their convenience for training and practice of skills, such as flooded quarries. They are generally found where more interesting and pleasant diving is not locally available, or may only be accessible when weather or water conditions permit.

While divers may choose to get into the water at any arbitrary place that seems like a good idea at the time, a popular recreational dive site will usually be named, and a geographical position identified and recorded, describing the site with enough accuracy to recognise it, and hopefully, find it again. (Full article...)

Reef diving regions

In the context of recreational diving, a reef may be a coral reef or a bottom of predominantly consolidated inorganic material, like rocky reef, and in the broader sense includes artificial structures and even ships sunk as artificial reefs. No special equipment is needed for most reef dive sites, but sufficient skill in buoyancy and depth control is desirable so that the diver does not harm the ecosystem by clumsy impacts with the bottom or stirring up sediment. Drift diving may be optional or the default where the current is strong.

Reef diving regions are geographical regions of arbitrary size known for including more than one named reef dive site, while a reef dive site is a specific part of a reef known by a name, which recreational divers visit to dive.

Wall diving is a form of reef diving, where The main characteristic of the sites is that the terrain is predominantly near vertical. The height of the wall can vary from a few metres to hundreds of metres.[1] The top of the wall must be within diving depth, but the bottom may be far below or reasonably close to the surface. Many wall dive sites are in close proximity to more gently sloping reefs and unconsolidated sediment bottoms. No special training is required, but good buoyancy control skills are necessary for safety. Wall dive sites vary considerably in depth, and many are suitable for drift diving when a moderate current flows along the wall.

Reef dive sites

Wall diving regions

Specific regions known for wall dive sites include:

Wall dive sites

  • Blue Hole (Red Sea) – Submarine sinkhole north of Dahab, Egypt
  • Great White Wall - Fiji [4]
  • Rainbow Reef - Fiji [4]
  • Half Moon Caye Wall - Lighthouse Atoll, Belize[5]
  • Bloody Bay - Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands[6]
  • Ghost Mountain - Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands[6]
  • East Chute/Cayman Mariner - Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands[6]
  • Haleiwa Trench - Oahu, Hawaii[7]
  • Black Rock - Maui, Hawaii[7]
  • Molokini - Maui, Hawaii[7]
  • Islas Marietas - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  • El Chato - Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico

Cave dive sites

Many cave dive sites are fresh water, but there are some that are sea water and a few that are partly fresh and partly sea water, and these may have a distinct halocline.

Sea cave – Cave formed by the wave action of the sea and located along present or former coastlines

Caves with exclusively or mainly fresh water

Blue holes

The Great Blue Hole, located near Ambergris Caye, Belize
Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas

Blue hole – Marine cavern or sinkhole, open to the surface, in carbonate bedrock

Freshwater dive sites

Flooded quarries and mines

Diving at Stoney Cove

Deep pools and tanks

Wreck diving regions

Wreck diving regions: Regions known for having more than one shipwreck used as a recreational dive site:

Wreck diving sites

References

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