Dive sites: wall

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

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

3 to 20 mOpen WaterFrom November to May

ShoreCurrent: lightVisibility 15 to 30 m

The Moalboal sardine run gathers several million fish into a shifting curtain, 20 or 30 m from Panagsama Beach.

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

4 to 40 mOpen WaterFrom July to October and from December to February

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 20 to 40 m

Misali is a reserve island of less than one square kilometer in the Pemba Channel, 10 kilometers from Chake Chake, with coral gardens that start at the beach, a wall rising from 80 to...

A large dusky grouper, with a dark white-spotted body and a golden belly, swims left along a rock wall lined with white gorgonians, with two Mediterranean chromis in the blue.

FranceReef

Mérouville (Lavezzi Islands)

French Mediterranean: Riviera, Provence and Corsica

17 to 36 mAdvancedFrom June to September

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility good in calm seas

Mérouville is a granite shoal southeast of the Lavezzi Islands, in the Bouches de Bonifacio reserve, between 17 and 36 m, where resident dusky groupers, some over 30 kg, come to hover one or...

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

6 to 30 mAdvancedFrom November to April

LiveaboardCurrent: variableVisibility 20 to 40 m

Maaya Thila is an isolated pinnacle in the middle of North Ari, with its top between 6 and 12 meters.

A diver in a black wetsuit with a yellow tank, seen from behind, faces a dusky grouper swimming toward him in open blue water, above algae-covered rocks and among dozens of small fish.

FranceWall

La Gabinière (Port-Cros)

French Mediterranean: Riviera, Provence and Corsica

10 to 45 mAdvancedFrom June to October

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility good in calm seas, reduced by east winds

At La Gabinière, in Europe's first marine park, the groupers do not flee: they watch you arrive and stay within arm's reach, because nobody may fish them here anymore.

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

Guanacaste and the North Pacific

10 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom December to April

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 6 to 24 m

The Islas Catalinas are a volcanic archipelago 30 minutes by boat from Playas del Coco, with more than twenty sites open to Open Water divers.

A Moorish idol striped black and yellow, its long white dorsal filament stretched out, in front of a wall covered in red sponges and soft corals at Hin Daeng

ThailandPelagic

Hin Daeng and Hin Muang

Andaman Sea: Similan, Surin and Lanta

8 to 40 mAdvancedFrom December to April

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 30 m

Hin Daeng and Hin Muang are two offshore rocks south of Koh Lanta: Hin Daeng, the red rock, is covered in soft corals, and Hin Muang, the purple rock, rises from 65 to 8...

A cloud of orange anthias above a hard coral reef, in clear blue water

EgyptReef

Giftun Islands

Central Red Sea, Egypt

5 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom March to November

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 20 to 30 m

Giftun Kebir and Giftun Soraya are two desert islands off Hurghada, ringed by reefs less than an hour and a half away by boat.

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

5 to 40 mAdvancedFrom July to October and from December to February

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 20 to 40 m

Fundu Gap is a channel between Fundo Island and the reef, on the west coast of Pemba, with coral walls that drop past 40 meters and Napoleon wrasse, eagle rays and trevallies holding in...

A slender white lighthouse with a red door stands on the low, rocky islet of Formigão, its dark rocks fringed with brown algae, above a gray, rough sea under an overcast sky

AzoresReef

Formigas and Dollabarat

Santa Maria

5 to 50 mAdvancedFrom July to September

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 20 to 40 m, sometimes more

The Formigas and Dollabarat form an isolated rocky bank 43 km from Santa Maria, a nature reserve since 1988, where you meet bold groupers, tuna, barracuda and mobulas in the clearest water in the...