"Travel&World"
Repository of World's Travel Resources
The World's Best Dive Sites
1. Cocos Island, Costa Rica
For those willing to make the long journey from the mainland port of Puntarenas, Cocos Island promises fey beauty. Just four miles long, peaking at 3,000 feet, this island, said to have inspired Jurassic Park, is surrounded by waters where scalloped hammerheads and white-tip reef sharks thrive, hugging the steep drop-offs that entice experienced divers. The island is a national park and tourists are not allowed to lodge on it – divers must visit by means of a liveaboard.
2. Magnetic Island, Australia
Magnetic Island, five miles offshore from Townsville, in Queensland, Australia, offers a wide range of diving options, according to Paul Hart, but it is the access from many gently sloping and sheltered beaches that makes it particularly attractive. "It isn't like diving on the Barrier Reef, but the wildlife is amazing and there is plenty of it," he says. “Waters range between 23-28C and the visibility is great most of the time. From Magnetic Island, you can dive the world-famous S.S. Yongala wreck. Lying in about 99ft of water, the wreck sank in 1911 and now provides a protected shelter for a fantastic variety of marine and coral life."
3. Ras Mohammed National Park, Red Sea, Egypt
At Yolanda Reef, in Egypt’s first and best kept national park, divers can glide above an eponymous wreck, which belched its cargo of hundreds of toilet bowls and a BMW, across the seascape.
4. Baa Atoll, the Maldives
This atoll, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in the Maldives, is the location for a new expedition with the Manta Trust led by Dr Guy Stevens, who has featured in over a dozen TV documentaries, including a BBC Natural World Special, ITV’s Man to Manta, and Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight. Based on board the Four Seasons liveaboard, divers will have the chance to witness aggregations of up to 150 rays. Whether or not tourists’ efforts contribute significantly to scientific knowledge remains to be seen, but they can be guaranteed fulfilling dives all the same, with sightings of whale sharks, hawksbill and green turtles, and, honeycomb moray eel also likely.
5. Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea
Andrew Purvis, a Telegraph Travel editor who learnt to dive with the British Army in Gibraltar, and has totted up at least 200 dives, says that his best ever trip was at a site called North Emma Reef at Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea. "Bradfords, a pair of coral sea mounts out in the bay, is also spectacular," he says.