 There
is no adventure than diving. Whether
you are novice, or whether you were been diving for
so many years, there is always something new, fascinating
or challenging about venturing into the underwater world.
Your mind may be mesmerized by clouds of colourfull fish,
your curiosity raised by the mysterious remains of sunken
ships or your creativity awakened by the art of underwater
photography. Your diving interests may range from a casual
pastime pursued on vacation, to a constant passion, or even
a career. Diving offers something new for everyone.
Diving
in Andamans is a unique lifetime experience. The coastal water
surrounding theses islands is the abode of one of the richest
coral reef ecosystem is the world. The specialty is that,
here the coral reefs and underwater formations are undamaged
by human activity. The best season for diving is from December
to April.
 Many
of the islands are surrounded by fringing reefs, often several
hundred meters wide and separated from the shore by a lagoon
of similar width. There are also more steeply undulating hills
of raven volcanic lava, which makes for some unusual diving.
There are plenty of steeply sloping and shallow reefs suitable
for snorkeling.Large pelagics are plentiful in these waters,
as are a variety of sharks. Large schools of hammerhead often
patrol the waters away from the reefs and Grey, Whitetip,
Nurse and leopard sharks are found closer inshore. Silvertip
and Ocean Whitetips also sometimes appear out of the deep
blue beyond. Enormous manta Rays are also often seen.
Few
dive sites near to South Andaman Island/Port Blair
|
Cinque
Island One
of the best dive destinations in the island, it has
clear emerald water with a visibility of upto 80 feet.
The deep dive offers a terrific variety of marine life,
including black coral, sightings of sharks and is ideal
for the experienced diver.
North
Point: This site at Cinque Island is mostly highlighted
by sponges and small corals and diversity of fish life.
Southeast
Reef at Cinque Isaland is a good site for novices. The
southeast part of the reef consists of hard and soft
corals and very dense on the rocks to about 16m(53 ft).
|
|
|
Fish
Rock near
Passage Island offers an extremely colourful dive. The
topography consists of rocky slopes, boulders and drop-offs,
featuring large fan of corals and plenty of sponges,
Below 25m, the rocks are covered in small bushy soft
corals in numerous hues. Hard corals are not so evident.
Grey and Whitetip Reef and Reef Sharks are almost always
in the vicinity as are Nurse Sharks. Among the rest
of the marine life are Eagle rays. Potato Cod, large
coral groupers, fusiliers, suitlips, turtles, batfish,
bumphead. Parrotfish,Squrielfish, curious and friendly
oriental sweetlips, surgeonfish, yellow Tangs, Triggerfisk,
tuna, Rainbow runners and many spices of trevally.
|
|
Bala Reef:
On the western side of
little Andaman, Bala Reef spreads over 4-5 sq.km amd
is said to be one of the best sites in the Anadamans
for coral-with vibrant colours.
|
Snake Island off
Corbyn’s Cove beach. This site offers awesome rock faces
and spectacular dive landscape. Marine life includes
Trigger fish, Grunts, Goatfish and Rays.
|
Corruption Rock
: Corruption Rock sticks
out between Chidiyatapu and Rutland Island. The
dive site is on the western side of the rock and is made
up of big underwater boulders. The corals are not
brilliant but the craggy undersea landscape of boulders
is stunning. A fantastic wonderland of gullies, channels
, ridges and canyons. Look out for giant napoleons and
eagle rays, huge snappers, schooling fusiliers, banner
and unicorn fish, Dolphins, tuna and reef sharks have
also been sighted here.
|
| Rutland Island: The
shallow waters near to the island have a good representation
of most smaller fish and coral, and a good place for training
open water divers. There is a ship wreck site also. |
Havelock
Island: This
is located approximately 50kms from Port Blair by inter-island
ferry. There is a range of largely unexplored dive sites rich
in underwater marine life.
Dive
sites near to the Havelock Island
 |
Mac
Point Mostly
hardcorales and their inhabitants are found. Usually
good visibility, dugongs have been spotted here.
Aquarium
is a fringing reef with
lots of ‘fishtraffic’. Usually good visibility, mostly
hardcorales.
Barracuda
City Tons of fish,
sometimes turtles, mostly hard and some soft corals.
Rather suitable for experienced divers.
|
Turtle
Bay is
an easy pleasant dive site not exceeding 14 meters. Rays are
found in the sand and with luck turtles.
Seduction
Point A huge rock with different kind of aquatic life.
Napoleans can be seen. The shallow part is full with staghorn
corals and its inhabitants.
Lighthouse
is a huge divesite, suitable for any kind of dives. Huge variety
of soft and hard corals. Perfect for nightdives.
The
Wall is a huge dive submerged rock. The wall drops down
to a maximum of 55 meters and is full with life. Huge forests
of softcorals plus schools of fish circling you, makes it
always a memorable dive.
Pilot
Reef near to Havelock is a huge block of prestine hardcorals.
At the bottom(max 24 meters) ‘canyons’ are stretching out.
Leopard and White Tip Sharks have been sighted.
Minerva
ledge at Havelock is even bigger block of hard corals.
Tons of fish even bigger block of hardcorals. Tons of
fish, usually good visibility and the possibility of seeing
sharks makes it one of the top dive sites.
Campbell
Shoaloff North Button Island.
The
bottom of this site is covered in mainly hardcorals, with
sporadic sandy patches and hosts a multitude of reef animals.
The marine life includes Whitetip Reef Sharks, large cod and
groupers, Coral Trout, Blue and Golden-banded fusilers, Giant
Trevally and a host of colourfull reef-fish.
Mahatma
Gandhi Marine National Park, Wandoor Hundreds
of colourfull varieties of coral reef fishes can be seen in
the park. Some of these are clownfish, butterfly fish, surgeon
fish, angel fish, parrot fish, bat fish and groupers. Whitetip
shark, hammer headed shark, Manta ray and blue fin jack are
also occasionally seen. More than 50 tyres of corals are found
in the fringing type of coral reefs in the park. Some important
coral varieties found here are Acropora, Pocillopora, Montipora,
Leptoseris, Fungia, Portis, Tubipora and Gorgonians.
|
