Green turtle

Can be seen all year round: passing over the top of the reef, at the end of the dives

Two divers hovering in the deep blue above a garden of plate and table corals, surrounded by yellow and black striped sergeant majors, their bubbles rising toward the surface.

PhilippinesReef

Apo Island

Peak season all year round: grazing on the Katipanan slope and in the shallow seagrass beds, on almost every dive

The flat, wooded island of Balicasag on the horizon, with its white lighthouse and fringe of pale sand, seen from a bangka whose white outriggers fill the foreground, under a cloudless blue sky.

PhilippinesReef

Balicasag Island

Peak season all year round: on the seagrass of the plateau and at Turtle Point, on almost every dive

A sea turtle rising diagonally through the blue, front flippers raised and its dark shell covered in algae, in front of a school of fusiliers on the left.

IndonesiaReef

Batu Bolong

Komodo

Peak season all year round: on the shallow plateau, often several per dive

A reef manta ray seen from below, very close, its white belly spotted with black and its cephalic fins unrolled, surrounded by fish in the blue

FrancePass

Boulari Pass (New Caledonia)

New Caledonia

Sulawesi: Bunaken and Lembeh

Can be seen all year round: on the reefs near the pass

A green turtle swimming to the right in open blue water, two yellowish remoras under its plastron, next to a column of divers' bubbles and small fish.

IndonesiaReef

Bunaken, Lekuan walls

Sea of Cortez: La Paz and Cabo Pulmo

Peak season all year round: the park's resident population, several per dive, resting in niches in the wall or swimming along it

A tight school of yellow snappers with bright yellow fins, seen side-on in blue-green water, on the Cabo Pulmo reef

MexicoReef

Cabo Pulmo

French Indian Ocean: Réunion and Mayotte

Can be seen all year round: on the reefs on almost every dive, asleep at Las Casitas

A sea turtle with a narrow, hooked beak swims over sand and branching coral in the clear, shallow water of the lagoon

FranceReef

Cap La Houssaye (Réunion)

Peak season all year round: resident on the seagrass bed, between the cannon and the reef

A huge school of fish in silhouette, seen from below against the sunlight sparkling under the surface, in deep blue water.

IndonesiaPelagic

Castle Rock

Komodo

French West Indies: Guadeloupe and Martinique

Can be seen all year round: passing over the top of the pinnacle

A hawksbill turtle seen from above swims just over rocks covered in algae, brain corals, gorgonians and yellow tube sponges, in green-turquoise water

FranceReef

Cousteau Reserve (Pigeon Islands)

Peak season all year round: all year on the seagrass beds off Malendure and the islet plateaus, visible right from the beach with fins, mask and snorkel

A gray sunfish with pale spots, seen three-quarters on in open blue water, its long dorsal and anal fins stretched out, surrounded by small reef fish.

IndonesiaPelagic

Crystal Bay

Bali and Nusa Penida

Peak season all year round: resting on the reef in the bay or swimming along the wall

Two divers follow the outer wall of the Blue Hole, covered in hard corals and anthias, with the deep blue on the left

EgyptShore dive

Dahab Blue Hole

French West Indies: Guadeloupe and Martinique

Can be seen all year round: passing on the wall and near the saddle

Aerial view of the long Le Diamant beach lined with turquoise water, Diamond Rock offshore and Morne Larcher, a green hill, on the right

FrancePelagic

Diamond Rock

Can be seen all year round: passing around the rock

A lionfish with brown stripes and long fins spread out in front of red soft corals and a yellow fire coral

EgyptWreck

Dunraven wreck

Andaman Sea: Similan, Surin and Lanta

Can be seen all year round: passing over the reef, above the wreck

A beige zebra shark covered in black spots swims toward the camera just above a coral reef, its long tail raised, in a cloud of small silver fish, with white sand on the left and blue water above

ThailandReef

Elephant Head Rock

Can be seen all year round: passing by, rarer than the hawksbill

A sea anemone with raised white tentacles and a pink base, with a blurred diver in yellow fins in the background, in the Njao channel

TanzaniaPass

Fundu Gap

Pemba

Guanacaste and the North Pacific

Can be seen all year round: passing over the top of the wall

An oceanic manta, wings spread, gliding head-on toward a diver who lights it with a torch, a remora on its black back with white shoulders and bubbles rising in the blue.

Costa RicaReef

Islas Catalinas

Can be seen all year round: passing over the shallow sites

MaldivesPelagic

Kandooma Thila

Malé atolls

Can be seen all year round: resting on the top of the thila

A large potato grouper, gray marbled with black, seen from above, resting on the pale sand of a gully between two coral-covered rock walls, in a cloud of small silver fish

TanzaniaPass

Kinasi Pass

Mafia Island

Can be seen all year round: passing over the seagrass beds and coral gardens

A tight school of silvery barracudas, seen from the side in deep blue water, photographed in the Red Sea at Ras Mohammed

TanzaniaPelagic

Leven Bank

Zanzibar

Sea of Cortez: La Paz and Cabo Pulmo

Can be seen all year round: passing over the plateau

A California sea lion swimming side-on in green water, its body streamlined, white whiskers, above a rocky bottom where small fish pass

MexicoReef

Los Islotes

Can be seen all year round: at the surface and on the Espíritu Santo reefs, during the crossing and the second dive

A whitetip reef shark, light gray with white fin tips, swims above a reef in clear blue water, surrounded by blue fusiliers

MaldivesReef

Maaya Thila

Ari and Rasdhoo atolls

Can be seen all year round: passing over the top

A large white sea fan with red veins spread wide, between a rust-colored sponge riddled with holes on the left and a yellow sea fan, with a diver in black approaching on the right in blue water.

IndonesiaPelagic

Magic Mountain (Misool)

Raja Ampat

Peak season all year round: passing over the coral garden on top

Misali Island seen from a plane, a triangle of forest edged by a white beach, sitting on a turquoise reef flat in a dark blue sea, in the haze

TanzaniaReef

Misali Island

Pemba

Peak season all year round: on the coral gardens and seagrass beds; nesting on the island's beaches

A bluespotted ribbontail ray resting on the sand under a coral overhang, in turquoise water

TanzaniaReef

Mnemba Atoll

Zanzibar

Peak season all year round: resident on the Kichwani and Wattabomi slopes; nesting on the islet's beach from February to September

Thousands of silver sardines in a tight school in blue water, against the wall where a red brain coral stands out.

PhilippinesShore dive

Moalboal sardine run

Yucatán and the Caribbean: Cozumel, cenotes, Playa del Carmen

Peak season all year round: on the reef flat and the top of the wall, on almost every dive

The silhouette of a diver heading down head-first toward the Palancar Gardens reef, the sun backlit at the surface, sea fans on the bottom

MexicoReef

Palancar Reef

Can be seen all year round: passing over the sand and the top of the reef

A wall of fire coral and hard corals with anthias and damselfish, sunlight shining through the surface

EgyptReef

Panorama Reef

Central Red Sea, Egypt

Can be seen all year round: on the plateaus, passing through

Aerial view of Pescador Island, a rock covered in green vegetation with its white lighthouse, surrounded by about ten dive bancas on a dark blue sea

PhilippinesReef

Pescador Island

Yucatán and the Caribbean: Cozumel, cenotes, Playa del Carmen

Peak season all year round: on the plateau and the east wall, up to seventeen turtles counted on one dive

Two divers kneeling on the sand watch a bull shark passing in front of them in turquoise blue water, off Playa del Carmen

MexicoPelagic

Playa del Carmen bull sharks

Can be seen all year round: on the reefs near Playa, during the reef dive

MaldivesPelagic

Rasdhoo Madivaru

Ari and Rasdhoo atolls

French Indian Ocean: Réunion and Mayotte

Can be seen all year round: on the Madivaru reef

Aerial view of a dark blue S-shaped channel winding between the turquoise flats of the barrier reef, with a few small white boats in the pass

FrancePass

S Pass (Mayotte)

Peak season all year round: in large numbers at buoy 2

In deep blue water, two divers in silhouette follow the stern railing of the Salem Express, the tilted deck on the right

EgyptWreck

Salem Express wreck

Central Red Sea, Egypt

Yucatán and the Caribbean: Cozumel, cenotes, Playa del Carmen

Can be seen all year round: passing on Hyndman Reef, next door

A reef in the Cozumel park: a purple azure vase sponge in the foreground, a barrel sponge, a sea fan and small blue fish in bright blue water

MexicoWall

Santa Rosa Wall

Can be seen all year round: passing over the sand plateau

A garden of hard corals and fire coral a few meters below the surface, a butterflyfish in the foreground

EgyptReef

Shark and Yolanda Reef, Ras Mohammed

Can be seen all year round: passing on the Yolanda plateau

A white-spotted whale shark swims below three snorkelers at the surface, in dark blue water

MaldivesPelagic

South Ari Atoll (Maamigili)

Ari and Rasdhoo atolls

Can be seen all year round: on the outer reef

Two divers swim along the deck of the Thistlegorm beside a passageway, in milky blue water

EgyptWreck

SS Thistlegorm

Can be seen all year round: passing through, grazing on the deck

A spotted whale shark seen head-on swimming in the deep blue, surrounded by about ten divers whose bubbles rise toward the surface.

PhilippinesPelagic

Tubbataha Reef

Palawan

Peak season from April to May: on almost every dive; it nests on the park's islets

The Liberty's hull covered in pink and brown encrusting corals, a blue-ringed angelfish along the plating and yellow butterflyfish in the blue

IndonesiaShore dive

USAT Liberty wreck

Bali and Nusa Penida