Biology:Outline of recreational dive sites

Short description: Hierarchical outline list of articles about rereational dive sites

Recreational diver over a coral reef in the Red Sea

Satellite image of part of the Great Barrier Reef

Wreck of the Fujikawa Maru

USNS Vandenberg in 2015.

Wreck of the RMS Rhone

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.

Bow of the Spiegel Grove

Anti-aircraft gun on the stern of the Thistlegorm

Deck of the Um Al Faroud

Entrance to the cave system at Dos Ojos

Diving at Piccaninnie ponds

Diving at Stoney Cove

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.

NASA image [1] showing locations of significant coral reefs, which are often sought out by divers for their abundant, diverse life forms.

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.

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.

Reef diving regions

• Earth:Apo Reef – Coral reef in the Philippines
• Earth:Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park – Marine protected area in the Cozumel reef system off Mexico
• Earth:Belize Barrier Reef – Series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize
• Earth:Għar Qawqla – Limestone formation off Marsalforn on the island of Gozo in Malta
• Earth:Molokini – Islet in Maui County, Hawaii
• Earth:Osprey Reef – Submerged atoll in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, Australia
• Earth:Poor Knights Islands – Group of islands and marine reserve off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island
• Earth:Shaʽb Abu Nuħas – Coral reef in the Red Sea
• Earth:Socorro Island – Small volcanic island off the west coast of Mexico
• Earth:Tubbataha Reef – Protected area in the middle of the Sulu Sea
• Earth:Utila – Smallest of Islas de la Bahía, Honduras

Reef dive sites

• • Earth:Shark River Reef – Artificial reef off New Jersey
  • Underwater artworks
• Earth:Azure Window – Former natural arch in Gozo, Malta
• Earth:Devil's Throat at Punta Sur – Underwater cave near Cozumel, Mexico
• Engineering:Frederiksted Pier – Cruise ship pier in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
• Earth:Inland Sea, Gozo – Seawater lagoon on Gozo, Malta
• Earth:Palancar Reef – Coral reef off Cozumel, Mexico in the Caribbean sea

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.

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

• Earth:Blue Grotto (Malta) – Sea caverns in Malta
• Earth:Devil's Throat at Punta Sur – Underwater cave near Cozumel, Mexico
• Earth:Nereo Cave – Sea cave in Sardinia, Italy
• Earth:Inland Sea, Gozo – Seawater lagoon on Gozo, Malta

Caves with exclusively or mainly fresh water

• • Earth:Sistema Dos Ojos – Flooded cave system at the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
  • Earth:Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich – Flooded cave system in Mexico
  • Earth:Sistema Ox Bel Ha – Flooded cave system in Quintana Roo, Mexico
  • Earth:Sistema Sac Actun – Flooded cave system in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
• Earth:Chinhoyi Caves – Group of caves in north central Zimbabwe
• Earth:Engelbrecht Cave – Cave system in South Australia
• Earth:Fossil Cave – Flooded cave in the Limestone Coast area of South Australia
• Piccaninnie Ponds – Protected area near Mount Gambier in South Australia
• Earth:Zacatón – Water-filled sinkhole in Mexico

Blue holes

The Great Blue Hole, located near Ambergris Caye, Belize

Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas

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

• Earth:Amberjack Hole – Blue Hole 48 km off the coast of Sarasota, Florida
• Earth:Dean's Blue Hole – Deep water-filled sinkhole in the Bahamas
• Earth:Dragon Hole – Deep underwater sinkhole in the South China Sea
• Earth:Great Blue Hole – Marine sinkhole off the coast of Belize
• Earth:Green Banana Hole – Blue hole off the coast of Sarasota, Florida

Freshwater dive sites

• Earth:Ewens Ponds – Flooded sinkholes in South Australia
• Earth:Little Blue Lake – Flooded sinkhole dive site in South Australia

Flooded quarries

Diving at Stoney Cove

• Dorothea Quarry, Nantlle Valley, Gwynedd, North Wales.
• Dosthill quarry, near Tamworth, Staffordshire
• Dutch Springs, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
• National Diving and Activity Centre, at Tidenham, Gloucestershire
• Stoney Cove, between Stoney Stanton and Sapcote in Leicestershire

Wreck diving regions

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

• Earth:Pearl and Hermes Atoll – Atoll of Hawaii
  • List of shipwrecks in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
• Place:Tulagi – Small island in the Solomon Islands north of Guadalcanal

Wreck diving sites

Divers at the wreck of the SS Carnatic

A

• SS Antilles – French cruise ship that ran aground and sank off Mustique

B

• MV Bianca C. – Passenger ship sunk off Grenada

H

• MT Haven – Crude oil carrier that sank off the coast of Genoa, Italy in 1991
• Herzogin Cecilie – German-built four-masted barque wrecked near Salcombe

J

• SS James Eagan Layne – Liberty ship sunk off Cornwall, now a dive site
• Jura – Wooden, flush deck, paddle steamer,

K

• Kyarra – Cargo and passenger luxury liner torpedoed and sunk near Swanage

P

• SS Papoose – Oil tanker built in 1921
• SS Port Kembla – A steamer owned by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line

S

• SS Stanwood – British ship sunk off Falmouth in 1939

T

• SS Torrey Canyon – Oil tanker wrecked off the coast of Cornwall