Scuba Diving the Seychelles

The Seychelles archipelago is off the mainland of Africa and lies in the west part of the Indian Ocean. Made up 115 different islands just south of the equator, the Seychelles is known for its vibrant culture, arts scene, white-sand beaches, and mountainous landscapes with cloud forests.

The underwater landscapes are equally as fascinating and there are two main groups of islands; the Inner and Outer Islands. These offer the chance to dive granite-based reefs and the more common carbonate tropical reefs.

Spearfishing and dynamite fishing is banned in the Seychelles, allowing marine life to thrive and the Seychelles has two UNSECO World Heritage Sites; Aldabra, the world’s largest raised coral atoll, and Vallee de Mai, protecting the famous Coco-de-mer nut. Marine life is plentiful and there are over 1000 different fish species found at the Seychelles reefs.

Seychelles liveaboard diving is offered by modern yachts and traditional schooners, who sail and explore the different islands. Most liveaboards provide land-based activities to explore the islands themselves, their national parks and local cultures.

The Inner Islands

The 41 inner islands are mountainous with cloud forest and are part of a shallow plateau, with average dive depths of 8 to 30 meters (26 to 98 feet). They have unique granite boulder formations underwater, covered in corals and other marine life. Commonly seen life includes reef fish, octopi, lionfish, nudibranchs, mantis shrimps, sharks, stingrays, and moray eels. The dive sites of the Inner Islands are suitable for novice and experienced divers and one of the main highlights is Mahé Island.

Mahé is the largest island of the Seychelles and has visiting whale sharks off the southern side of the island during October and November each year. There are plenty of dive sites to choose from for beginner and advanced divers and the granite landscapes offer dramatic boulders, massifs and hard coral formations. Brissare Rock, between Mahé and Praslin Island, is a granite massif with outcrops covered in white fan corals and has some of the largest moray eels of the area. Occasional currents attract stingrays, hawksbill turtles, reef sharks and whale sharks.

Bay Ternay Marine park has some of the best hard coral formations around Mahé and Shark Bank is a good dive site for spotting reef sharks, whale sharks, eagle rays and tuna. A visit to Mahé isn’t complete without visiting the stunning beach of Beau Vallon and exploring the nearby wreck diving sites.

The best time to visit Mahé is March to May and September to November, to enjoy warm water temperatures of 29 °C (84 °F) and visibility of up to 30 meters (98 feet).

The Outer Islands

The remote Outer Islands are made up of 74 coral atolls and reef islands with beautiful sand cays. They consist of five island groups and are mostly uninhabited, offering peaceful and pristine dive sites. These islands are usually only visited by liveaboards and have big drop-offs, walls, pinnacles, numerous wrecks, caves and canyons to explore; providing ideal dives for more experienced divers.

Aldabra Island has terraced wall dives and Green turtles are commonly seen underwater and when nesting on the beach. Astove has wall diving and caves, whilst Cosmoledo atoll has huge hard coral bommies, giant gorgonian fans, barrel sponges and resident potato bass.

The marine life of the Outer Islands includes Napoleon wrasse, parrotfish, stingrays and reef sharks. Green and Hawksbill turtles are both found in the area, as are Sailfish, manta rays, whale sharks and occasional hammerhead sharks.

Some of the Outer Islands lie close to the cyclone belt and can have rough conditions during cyclone season. The best time to visit the Outer Islands is March to May and September to November. Divers should be aware the big drop-offs at these islands have marked thermoclines and the water temperature can range from 19 to 27 °C (66 to 80 °F) in places. A full wetsuit is recommended.

This article was written by divers and writers at liveaboard.com.