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Scuba Diving in Rodrigues

The island of Rodrigues, about 600 km ENE of Mauritius, is probably one of the remotest places I've dived after Saipan in the Pacific. The island covers only 108 sq. km, but the lagoon covers 230 sq. km! Its coral reefs are very rich, and we saw many species of reef fish while there, including some enormous porcupinefish, as well as some green turtles and lots of trevallies.

Rodrigues and its lagoon

We did 11 dives on ten different sites while in Rodrigues, all from the Cotton Dive Center in the east. The two most memorable were the St François Pass (which we dived twice), and Canyon where we had to used ropes! Below are a few photos.

Phyllidia varicosa nudibranch

Sea cucumber

this type of angelfish is only found in the waters around Rodrigues

Yellow teardrop butterflyfish (Chaetodon interrupts), only found in the Indian Ocean

Blackspotted pufferfish (Arothron nigropunctatus)

Black-saddled leopard grouper (Plectropomus laevis)

Scorpion fish, possibly a humpback scorpionfish

Blue triggerfish (Pseudobalistes fuscus)

Moray eel

Pipefish (Corythoichthys)

Great barracuda (sphyraena barracuda)

Squirrelfish

Me (holding a Gopro) at Karlanne dive site

Bigeye trevallies (Caranx sexfasciatus)

Leaf fish (Taenianotus triacanthus)

Spiny lobster (Panulirus versicolor)

Giant clam (tridacna maxima)

Other articles about diving in Rodrigues:

Rodrigues diving (east) Mysterra magazine
Rodrigues… To the end of the World! Scuba Dive Advisor, Feb 2012

me, watching a shoal of fish go by

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diving Indian Ocean Reunion Saint Leu

Diving World Record in Reunion Island

(photo ©GPP)

Reunion Island's water sports and tourism sectors have been hard-hit by the recent spate of shark attacks. Although divers know that you have nothing to fear from a shark underwater, the general public has a different perception. This is the main reason why on December 1st the local Groupement des professionnels de la plongée (GPP, Association of diving professionals) decided to create a positive action and break a world record by forming a human chain of 110 divers at a depth of 18 metres.

(photo ©GPP)

200 hours of preparation were necessary for the event, which also involved 40 extra volunteers, 13 dive boats and 14 dive clubs.

(photo ©GPP)

The youngest diver was 18, and the oldest 82!

(photo ©GPP)

Six photographers and cameramen were present.

(photo ©GPP)

It took place place at Saint Leu on the island's south-west coast, and although originally only a minute together was planned, in the end the divers managed 5 minutes and 12 seconds without breaking the chain, which measured 76.2 metres long.

At the surface (photo ©Laurent Figon)

Four independent judges were present to attest to the world record, which will be sent to the Guinness Book of Records for certification.

celebrating at the surface afterwards (photo ©GPP)

diving Indian Ocean Madagascar photos Travelling video

Diving at Nosy Be

Nosy Be is a 312 km2 island located 8km off Madagascar's north-west coast in the Mozambique Channel, generally considered to be Madagascar's major tourist and main diving destination (there are 17 dive clubs located in and around Nosy Be). I've written a separate blog post about visiting Nosy Be in general.

photo © Raquel & Oscar Gomez-Eerland

We chose to visit Nosy Be in October as we'd heard that we had a chance of seeing whale sharks. We chose to dive with Nosy Be's (Madagascar's?!) only British-owned and run dive club: Coral Diving. Due to personal vacation constraints we were there during the second week of October although the whale shark season is mainly late October to early December. However we were in luck and on our second day of diving we got to spend an hour swimming with this majestic animal.

We were very lucky because before our first dive we'd already seen a humpback whale, and during our surface interval en route to our second dive site we saw (bottlenose?) dolphins. Not long before seeing the whale shark we then saw some very big dolphins whose behaviour was quite different to other dolphins. We distinctly saw one swimming about with a fish in its mouth. It turns out that these were rare false killer whale dolphins (also known as pseudorca) and they have been known to approach and offer fish they have caught to humans who are diving or boating. You can see them in this video we filmed:

The previous day we had started our Nosy Be diving with two dives in the Nosy Tanakely Marine Reserve. Nosy Tanakely is a tiny island a few miles off the coast of Nosy Be. A good dive profile meant we were able to have dives which lasted 80 minutes! We saw pufferfish, turtles, lionfish, moray eels, a ribbon eel, and batfish being cleaned by wrasse.

The dive just before seeing the whale shark was at a dive site called Manta Point, about 14km from the coast. Unfortunately we didn't see any mantas, but we had a dive with flawless visibility, even at a depth of 24 metres. We saw lots of groupers, unicorn fish, and some garden eels.

through a looking glass ...

The dives on our third day's diving were at Sakatia Grotto and Fusilier. Nosy Sakatia is a 3km2 island which lies just off the coast of Nosy Be. Both dives were 20-25m deep. At Fusilier we briefly saw a white-tip reef shark, and an (inoffensive) jellyfish during our safety stop.

On all our Nosy Be dives we saw a wide range of brightly-coloured nudibranches, some of which I had never seen the like before.

On our final day we started with a small wreck dive. The dive site is called Chameau ('camel') and is also about 14km off the coast of Nosy Be. We saw lobsters, turtles, and lionfish and went to a depth of about 30 metres.