Nine granite islands, covered in dense jungle & ringed by sandy bays, offer a sumptuous variety of diving for experienced divers in the strong currents of the eastern shores, and for all divers on the western sides. You’ll find enormous granite boulders, descending down to 40 meters with swim-throughs, caves & tunnels. The serious adrenaline rush comes in the strong currents created by the waters meeting these massive rocks. This challenging but rewarding experience offers colorful reef fish, sharks & rays but also eels and a variety of critters, such as ghost pipefish, frogfish and ribbon eels. And, you’ll find sponges and gorgonians that will take you breath away.

Adding to the excitement, you’ll find that at the right time of the year you’re in one of top locations for whale sharks and manta rays.  Richelieu Rock, which is covered in soft corals, hosts a vast array of fish: Moorish idols, bearded scorpion fish, titan triggerfish and lionfish, crabs and nudibranchs to name just a few.

And as major food supply is not abundant in this sea, it’s quite natural that the pelagics would find their way here to fill their bellies. You’ll run into jacks and tuna and trevallies, rainbow runners, great barracuda, plus the delight of the mating cuttlefish in addition to whale sharks and manta rays.

Elephant Head is another favorite site with more boulders, swim-throughs with caverns, arches and grottoes to explore. Soft corals & hard corals abound, schools of yellowtail snappers and yellowtail fusiliers, imperial and emperor angelfish, leopard sharks.

The islands themselves are pretty well uninhabited & untouristed. The four banks, Silvertip, Rainbow Reef, Roe and Big Banks, have raging currents which have cut ethereal oral underwater formations sporting incredibly large table corals. A large tunnel runs right through western rocky island, which houses sleeping nurse sharks and countless crayfish. in addition to the nurse sharks, you almost certain to see bull sharks, grey reef sharks, black tips and white tips. More of the same at Black Rock but adding to the wonder are scores of manta rays, marbled rays, Jenkins rays and the rare mangrove ray, schooling mobula rays and spotted eagle rays.

Favorite dive sites are Black Rock, North Twin, South Twin, Three Islets, and Shark Cave which all include plenty of variety. From multiple species of sharks, pelagics, schooling fish & unusual macro life to caves, caverns, steep walls and rock covered with coral and fans, the wealth of aquatic life combined with clear water will please underwater photographers and marine naturalists.

These Islands cover an area of just over 8,000 square kilometers with 500 islands, islets and rocky outcrops (only 26 islands are currently inhabited). Many of the islands are surrounded by reefs which can be several hundred metres wide & separated from the shore by a lagoon of similar width. There are also steeply sloping reef walls & coral pinnacles or knolls. Divers can cruise around hills of black volcanic lava and find large pelagics: sharks, large schools of hammerheads, grey, white tip, nurse and leopard sharks, silvertips and oceanic white-tips are sometimes seen.

You’ll be fascinated by the cleaning stations where giant barracuda wait for their teeth to be cleaned. Enormous manta rays, bumphead parrotfish and napoleon wrasse are also often seen, sometimes by the dozens.