Dive Trips

category 1 dive sties – around muscat area

Cuttlefish PCF7834

CAT ISLAND

This is our home reef!  Just 200M from our marina lies a secret reef that we use for training and night dives.  The island is surrounded by a rocky reef that descends to sand at about 12m on the seaward side and extends under water in a long, low ridge for 100m at depths between 8 and 20m.  The sand is ideal for spotting sleeping stingrays and ridge itself is a home for turtles, moray eels and an abundance of reef fish.

JISSAH POINT

Not far to the southeast of our marina lies Jissah Point, a long peninsula of rock that provides some of the best diving in the area.  On a single dive, we pass a beautiful reef with hard and soft corals housing a multitude of colourful fish and the occasional turtle.  The reef turns into sand as we round the tip of the peninsula.  This is the place to spot rays of all types.  Continuing the dive, we come to some spectacular rock features that are great to explore and see some of the residents including turtles, eels and large shoals of fish.  Look out for the resident shoal of small barracuda as they circle around above you.

Grey moray eels PCF2247
Honeycomb moray eel PCF6446 min

BANDR AL KHAIRAN

A little further south and the mountains run down to the sea forming sheltered bays and spectacular backdrops to our open ocean dives.  The whole area sits about 20km away from our marina and provides over 20 diving and snorkelling sites and a variety of beautiful corals and rugged reefs.  Depths range from a few metres right down to 30 metres.  Depending on your skill level and sea conditions, we can find a place for everyone here.  We have spotted plenty of stingrays and turtles but also hosts of colourful reef fish, moray eels, giant batfish and an occasion giant grouper.

AL MUNNASSIR WRECK

Al Munassir was sunk as an artificial reef on 21 April 2003 and is now a popular diving destination. The wreck is off the coast of Muscat (Bander Al Khairan) at a depth between 10 and 28 meters. It is now serves as an artificial reef & a refuge for wildlife. An amazing dive site to enjoy for deep dives, wreck specialty, videography dives and night dives. This site has an amazing and diverse selection of marine life. The wreck is now well established and numerous soft coral colonies have taken root on its decks. Within the corridors of the vessel are some of the most rewarding and exciting experiences diving can offer. Massive schools of the fish gather here. The wreck is also home to a honeycomb Morae eel named Jeff and a large ray known as “El Hijo Pep”. Families of Lion fish, pufferfish and octopus are also encountered here. A night dive on the Al Munassir Wreck is an experience not be missed.

gulfdiversoman
Fahal Island

FAHAL ISLAND

Located 2.5miles (4 km) off Al Qurum beach in Muscat, Al Fahal Island is a fossilized limestone formation with three prominent pinnacles that peek out above sea level. It is also known as Shark Island due to the black-tip reef sharks found around shallow sandbank. it is composed mostly of around 55 to 35 million year old Eocene limestone and marl. This limestone was originally part of the sea floor. It is made up from the shells of marine organisms such as bivalve shellfish, coral and algae, deposited in a shallow marine environment.

It is a heaven for Oman’s diverse fish and coral species. Schools of fish are often found in and around the corals and reefs, there are many species, shapes and colors. If you are lucky can see whale sharks swimming by. It’s an excellent place for snorkeling and diving. Other marine life that thrives in the area includes barracuda, giant Eagle rays, and Mobula rays. Each one of Oman’s 39 coral species can be found here, making this one of the country’s most exciting diving sites.

category 2 dive site – beyond muscat area

RAS ABU DAWOOD

A small island that lies just over 80 minutes south of our marina and offers two completely different dives.  The seaward side is a spectacular wall dive the can drop to 35M.  Inside – on the landward side of the island is a beautiful, sandy bay with a marvellous coral reef down to 18M.  The range of marine life on display changes with every trip but it is very rare that we don’t see turtles and huge stingrays.  Sometimes we just sit on the sand and watch shoals of mobula or eagle rays passing.   The trip to the island is, itself a photographic feast of mountains and beaches but the special attraction of this site is that it is not a tourist destination so we usually dive completely on our own.

RAS ABU DAWOOD