Outline of recreational dive sites

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Recreational diver over a coral reef in the Red Sea Coral - Marsa Alam, Egypt - August 12, 2011.jpg
Recreational diver over a coral reef in the Red Sea
Satellite image of part of the Great Barrier Reef GreatBarrierReef-EO.JPG
Satellite image of part of the Great Barrier Reef
Wreck of the Fujikawa Maru Fujikawa Maru 1.JPG
Wreck of the Fujikawa Maru
USNS Vandenberg in 2015. Diver at USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10) wreck off Key West in January 2015.JPG
USNS Vandenberg in 2015.
Wreck of the RMS Rhone RMS Rhone 2003 12.jpg
Wreck of the RMS Rhone
The wreck of the tugboat MV Rozi rests on the seabed at 35 meters MV Rozi 01.jpg
The wreck of the tugboat MV Rozi rests on the seabed at 35 meters
The wreck of Salem Express in 2010, 19 years after she sank. Diving Salem Express.JPG
The wreck of Salem Express in 2010, 19 years after she sank.
Bow of the Spiegel Grove Bow of the Spiegel Grove wreck, Key Largo, Florida.jpg
Bow of the Spiegel Grove
Anti-aircraft gun on the stern of the Thistlegorm Thistlegorm gun.jpg
Anti-aircraft gun on the stern of the Thistlegorm
Deck of the Um Al Faroud Partie arriere du Um El Faroud.jpg
Deck of the Um Al Faroud
Entrance to the cave system at Dos Ojos Entrance to Dos Ojos.JPG
Entrance to the cave system at Dos Ojos
Diving at Piccaninnie ponds Cave diving at Piccaninnie Ponds.jpg
Diving at Piccaninnie ponds
Wazee Lake near Black River Falls, Wisconsin is a former iron mining quarry now used for scuba diving and other uses. Wazee 007.jpg
Wazee Lake near Black River Falls, Wisconsin is a former iron mining quarry now used for scuba diving and other uses.
Recreational dive sites of the greater Cape Town region. Most are in the Table Mountain National Par Marine Protected Area Dive sites of Cape Town.png
Recreational dive sites of the greater Cape Town region. Most are in the Table Mountain National Par Marine Protected Area
NASA image showing locations of significant coral reefs, which are often sought out by divers for their abundant, diverse life forms. Coral reef locations.jpg
NASA image showing locations of significant coral reefs, which are often sought out by divers for their abundant, diverse life forms.

Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this context all diving done for recreational purposes is included. Professional diving tends to be done where the job is, and with the exception of diver training and leading groups of recreational divers, does not generally occur at specific sites chosen for their easy access, pleasant conditions or interesting features.

Contents

Recreational dive sites may be found in a wide range of bodies of water, and may be popular for various reasons, including accessibility, biodiversity, spectacular topography, historical or cultural interest and artifacts (such as shipwrecks), and water clarity. Tropical waters of high biodiversity and colourful sea life are popular recreational diving tourism destinations. South-east Asia, the Caribbean islands, the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia are regions where the clear, warm, waters, reasonably predictable conditions and colourful and diverse sea life have made recreational diving an economically important tourist industry.

Recreational divers may accept a relatively high level of risk to dive at a site perceived to be of special interest. Wreck diving and cave diving have their adherents, and enthusiasts will endure considerable hardship, risk and expense to visit caves and wrecks where few have been before. Some sites are popular almost exclusively for their convenience for training and practice of skills, such as flooded quarries. They are generally found where more interesting and pleasant diving is not locally available, or may only be accessible when weather or water conditions permit.

While divers may choose to get into the water at any arbitrary place that seems like a good idea at the time, a popular recreational dive site will usually be named, and a geographical position identified and recorded, describing the site with enough accuracy to recognise it, and hopefully, find it again. ( Full article... )

Reef dive sites

In the context of recreational diving, a reef may be a coral reef or a bottom of predominantly consolidated inorganic material, like rocky reef, and in the broader sense includes artificial structures and even ships sunk as artificial reefs. No special equipment is needed for most reef dive sites, but sufficient skill in buoyancy and depth control is desirable so that the diver does not harm the ecosystem by clumsy impacts with the bottom or stirring up sediment. Drift diving may be optional or the default where the current is strong.

Reef diving regions are geographical regions of arbitrary size known for including more than one named reef dive site, while a reef dive site is a specific part of a reef known by a name, which recreational divers visit to dive.

Wall diving is a form of reef diving, where The main characteristic of the sites is that the terrain is predominantly near vertical. The height of the wall can vary from a few metres to hundreds of metres. [1] The top of the wall must be within diving depth, but the bottom may be far below or reasonably close to the surface. Many wall dive sites are in close proximity to more gently sloping reefs and unconsolidated sediment bottoms. No special training is required, but good buoyancy control skills are necessary for safety. Wall dive sites vary considerably in depth, and many are suitable for drift diving when a moderate current flows along the wall.

Reef diving regions

Reef dive sites

Wall diving regions

Specific regions known for wall dive sites include:

Wall dive sites

Cave dive sites

Many cave dive sites are fresh water, but there are some that are sea water and a few that are partly fresh and partly sea water, and these may have a distinct halocline.

Sea cave  – Cave formed by the wave action of the sea and located along present or former coastlines

Caves with exclusively or mainly fresh water

Blue holes

The Great Blue Hole, located near Ambergris Caye, Belize Great Blue Hole.jpg
The Great Blue Hole, located near Ambergris Caye, Belize
Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas Dean Blue Hole Long Island Bahamas 20110210.JPG
Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas

Blue hole  – Marine cavern or sinkhole, open to the surface, in carbonate bedrock

Freshwater dive sites

Flooded quarries and mines

Diving at Stoney Cove Stoney Cove Diving.jpg
Diving at Stoney Cove

Deep pools and tanks

Wreck diving regions

Wreck diving regions: Regions known for having more than one shipwreck used as a recreational dive site:

Wreck diving sites

Divers at the wreck of the SS Carnatic Ship wreck Carnatic 2017-04-22 Egypt-7947.jpg
Divers at the wreck of the SS Carnatic

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maritime archaeology</span> Archaeological study of human interaction with the sea

Maritime archaeology is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, shore-side facilities, port-related structures, cargoes, human remains and submerged landscapes. A specialty within maritime archaeology is nautical archaeology, which studies ship construction and use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shipwreck</span> Physical remains of a beached or sunk ship

A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately three million shipwrecks worldwide as of January 1999, according to Angela Croome, a science writer and author who specialized in the history of underwater archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wreck diving</span> Recreational diving on wrecks

Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. The term is used mainly by recreational and technical divers. Professional divers, when diving on a shipwreck, generally refer to the specific task, such as salvage work, accident investigation or archaeological survey. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificial reef sites. Diving to crashed aircraft can also be considered wreck diving. The recreation of wreck diving makes no distinction as to how the vessel ended up on the bottom.

USS <i>Albacore</i> (SS-218) Gato-class submarine from World War II

USS Albacore (SS-218) was a Gato-class submarine which served in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II, winning the Presidential Unit Citation and nine battle stars for her service. During the war, she was credited with sinking 13 Japanese ships and damaging another five; not all of these credits were confirmed by postwar Joint Army–Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC) accounting. She also holds the distinction of sinking the highest warship tonnage of any U.S. submarine. She was lost in 1944, probably sunk by a mine off northern Hokkaidō on 7 November.

USS <i>Snook</i> (SS-279) Submarine of the United States

USS Snook (SS-279), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the common snook, an Atlantic marine fish that is bluish-gray above and silvery below a black lateral line.

USS <i>Grayback</i> (SS-208) Formerly missing World War II US Navy submarine.

USS Grayback (SS-208), a Tambor-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the lake herring, Coregonus artedi. She ranked 20th among all U.S. submarines in total tonnage sunk during World War II, with 63,835 tons, and 24th in number of ships sunk, with 14. She was sunk near Okinawa on 27 February 1944. Her wreck was discovered in June 2019.

USS <i>Bluegill</i> Submarine of the United States

USS Bluegill (SS-242/SSK-242) was a Gato-class submarine in commission in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946, from 1951 to 1952, and from 1953 to 1969. She was named for the bluegill, a sunfish of the Mississippi Valley.

HMAS <i>Brisbane</i> (D 41) Australian guided missile destroyer

HMAS Brisbane was one of three Perth-class guided missile destroyers to serve in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The United States-designed ship was laid down at Bay City, Michigan in 1965, launched in 1966 and commissioned into the RAN in 1967. She is named after the city of Brisbane, Queensland.

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Japanese submarine <i>I-26</i> Imperial Japanese Navy B1 type submarine

I-26 was an Imperial Japanese Navy B1 type submarine commissioned in 1941. She saw service in the Pacific War theatre of World War II, patrolling off the West Coast of Canada and the United States, the east coast of Australia, and Fiji and in the Indian Ocean and taking part in Operation K, preparatory operations for the Aleutian Islands campaign, and the Guadalcanal campaign, the Marianas campaign, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She was the first Japanese submarine to sink an American merchant ship in the war, sank the first ship lost off the coast of State of Washington during the war, damaged the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3), sank the light cruiser USS Juneau (CLAA-52), and was the third-highest-scoring Japanese submarine of World War II in terms of shipping tonnage sunk. Her bombardment of Vancouver Island in 1942 was the first foreign attack on Canadian soil since 1870. In 1944, I-26′s crew committed war crimes in attacking the survivors of a ship she sank. She was sunk in November 1944 during her ninth war patrol.

I-21 was a Japanese Type B1 submarine which saw service during World War II in the Imperial Japanese Navy. She displaced 1,950 tons and had a speed of 24 knots (44 km/h). I-21 was the most successful Japanese submarine to operate in Australian waters, participating in the attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942 and sinking 44,000 tons of Allied shipping during her two deployments off the east coast of Australia.

USS <i>Kittiwake</i> Chanticleer-class submarine rescue vessel

USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) was a United States Navy Chanticleer-class submarine rescue vessel in commission from 1946 to 1994.

Wreck Alley is an area a few miles off the coast of Mission Beach, San Diego, California with several ships intentionally sunk as artificial reefs and as Scuba diving attractions for wreck divers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinking ships for wreck diving sites</span> Scuttling old ships to produce artificial reefs

Sinking ships for wreck diving sites is the practice of scuttling old ships to produce artificial reefs suitable for wreck diving, to benefit from commercial revenues from recreational diving of the shipwreck, or to produce a diver training site.

Shark River Reef is an artificial reef located in the Atlantic Ocean, 15.6 miles southeast of Manasquan Inlet, off of the coast of Ocean County, New Jersey. The site contains almost 4 million cubic yards of dredge rock material. Although 96% of the total reef material is rock, the site also contains numerous subway cars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recreational dive sites</span> Places that divers go to enjoy the underwater environment

Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this context all diving done for recreational purposes is included. Professional diving tends to be done where the job is, and with the exception of diver training and leading groups of recreational divers, does not generally occur at specific sites chosen for their easy access, pleasant conditions or interesting features.

The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Wikipedia's articles on recreational dive sites. The level of coverage may vary:

<i>Kizugawa Maru</i> World War II-era Japanese freighter ship

Kizugawa Maru, or Kitsugawa Maruα, is a World War II-era Japanese water tanker sunk in Apra Harbor, Guam. Damaged by a submarine torpedo attack off Guam on April 8, 1944, she was towed into port for repairs. In port, she was further damaged in three separate U.S. air attacks during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Deemed irreparable, Kizugawa Maru was scuttled by shore guns on June 27, 1944. The shipwreck is now a deep recreational diving site.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Laymon, Lynn. "Off the Wall: The Thrill of Wall Diving". Dive Training Magazine. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Wall Diving Essentials". www.liveaboard.com. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 "Wall Diving: How To Explore, Skills and Tips". La Galigo liveaboard. 23 December 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  4. 1 2 Mallender, Kena (22 December 2015). "Looking for the way to dive the Great White Wall on the Rainbow Reef?". www.diveplanit.com. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  5. Rosado, Ilya (6 September 2020). "What's it Like to Dive the Half Moon Caye Wall – Lighthouse Reef Atoll, Belize". Belize Adventure. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 "Top dive sites | PADI". PADI Travel. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 "Top dive sites | PADI". PADI Travel. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kas, Stratis; Pavia, Eduardo; Menduno, Michael (2020). Fisher, Paul (ed.). Close calls. London: Efstratios Kastrisianakis. ISBN   978-1-5272-6679-7.