Top 5 Scuba Diving Destinations That Will Leave You Breathless in Hawaii
Molokai
Molokai is only 38 miles long and 10 miles across at its widest point. It is home to the highest sea cliffs in the world along its northeast coast, (up to 3,900 feet), and Hawaii’s longest continuous fringing reef (28 miles) off Molokai’s southern coast. Molokai is a rare opportunity to visit pristine sites and spot rare animals. Most of these are drift dives ranging from 60-120 feet in depth.
Popular sites include but are not limited to:
Elephant Rock – islet off of east Molokai with excellent chance for hammerhead school sighting.
The Great Arch of Molokai – small island that looks intact on the surface but is in fact an massive arch underwater, you can swim through the island, a little too big to make it all the way around in one dive, but you can try.
The Blue Grotto – a ledge at 65ft that drops off into a wall to 100ft and slopes down from there. Most offer shallow and deep sections with plentiful sea life like Bandit Angelfish, Potter’s Angelfish, Saddle Wrasse, and Milletseed Butterflyfish, but the main attraction is larger pelagic life. Scalloped hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, whale sharks, spinner dolphins and Hawaiian Monk Seals are all known to make appearances.
Sea Tiger, Oahu
This 168-foot vessel was sunk in 1999 as an artificial reef. Marine life and growth is still in the early stages. This wreck offers penetration through its cargo holds, passageways, and stairwells surrounding the ship. One of the most popular dives in the south of Oahu; you can have an amazing experience of seeing a huge submarine glide past you as you are diving! Some submarine companies take tourist down to see this wreck. For added safety, it is highly recommended that divers stay clear of the submarine and pay particular attention when transiting between the surface and the wreck. Although this wreck is relatively new, it has already attracted numerous species of fish including, squirrelfish and filefish, along with visits from morays and the occasional reef shark. Not only a great dive in the daytime but this is an amazing spectacle to dive at night!
Makaha Caverns, Oahu
Makaha Caverns located on the west-side of Oahu in Waianae, are formations created by hot lava flowing into the ocean, trapped air in the lava formed bubbles when these bubbles popped the ocean water ran in and cooled off the surrounding lava forming caverns and caves. It is an amazing dive with the unique underwater topography, even if you didn’t see tons of marine life, but you will.
The overhangs are great habitats for all manner of marine life. The marine life that visits these caverns are green turtles, multiple species of eels, frogfish, leaf fish, occasional reef sharks, and eagle rays to name a few. This is one of the best dives on the island of Oahu.
The Mahi, Westside Oahu
The Mahi of Oahu is located in Yokohama bay on the very west side of Oahu. A former Navy minesweeper later refitted and used in the Bahamas as a cable layer, and then a research vessel for the University of Hawaii. Placed on the bottom in 1996, the Mahi was turned around and partially collapsed during Typhoon Iwa, so it is no longer recommended to divers as a penetration wreck dive. But even without an accessible interior, the 176-foot wreck remains the most popular dive site on the west side of Oahu. The waters surrounding the Mahi are generally perfect year round with mostly calm conditions and outstanding visibility.
The tops of the main decks of the Mahi are around 70 feet and the bottom nears around 90 feet. Most of the marine life that thrives in and around the Mahi shipwreck are schools of eagles rays swimming in formation, sometimes as many as 10-15. There are many species of eels, schools of goat fish and snappers, along with many camouflage fish like leaf fish, scorpion fish, and frogfish. This is an impressive site to behold. The eagle rays sometimes hover over various cleaning stations on the shipwreck, vying for their chance amongst the sea turtles to be cleaned. Cruise over and around it, and you will be rewarded with more sea life like puffers, octopuses, and nudibranchs. Oahu’s white tip reef sharks are also sometimes in attendance.
Sharks Cove North Shore, Oahu
There are a couple of sources for its name; the first is from the air, the rocks forming the cove look like a shark. The second is that the cove looks like a shark took a bit out of it. Because of its amazing underwater world, Shark’s Cove is a favorite spot among snorkelers and shore divers. The lava has formed underwater caves and tunnels about 15 to 45 feet below the surface. These caves are a real thrill for experienced scuba divers with lots of arches and open-ended lava tubes, allowing light penetration and easy access.
The “Elevator”, one of the dive site’s entrances, is a hole 10 feet in diameter, allowing a descent to 20 feet, and then exits through one of three different tubes (advanced divers only, and with flat sea conditions). The marine life here are large schools of convict tangs, baby mullets, Leviathan, Eagle Rays, Parrot Fish, and Turtles to name a few.
These fantastic dive sites, and some of them reputed as some of the best in the world, can all be accessed by one of Island Diver’s four independently owned an operated boats or shore diving with one of our amazing Instructors guiding you through fantastic lava tubes. Whichever way you wish to access these sites from land or water, Island Divers Hawaii can get you there and in the water for one of the most breathtaking dives of your life.