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Anchor Bay is one of our shallowest dive sites just off Barra beach. Perfect for training and for a nice gentle, slow and relaxing dive. The reef is large and quite flat with a few small pinnacles rising up here and there. Look out for the big ships anchor that gives this site its name. There are lots of assorted colours over the reef, staghorn and porous corals, plus anemones and sea urchins. These are home to many juvenile fish, look for beautiful Emperor Angelfish, baby Lionfish, Butterfly and Clown fish. There are also Crocodile, Stone and Scorpionfish around and a family of three Titan Triggerfish, also look out for round and bluespotted ribbontail rays and octopus. As a nice bonus this is one of the only in-shore reefs where you can see Manta's, usually frolicking on the surface.
General info:This is a very pleasant site and we can dive here with all experience levels and in most conditions.
This is the world famous Manta Reef on everyone's must dive list. Not only is the topography of the actual reef absolutely stunning but also close encounters with Manta rays are practically guaranteed at the three cleaning stations, making this a phenomenal dive site.
We have a north and south drop depending on the current. Our North drop is onto Manta Pinnacles, the first cleaning station and a massive pinnacle of rock that rises from 26m on the sand to 18m on top. The wall is a steep drop of 8m with a swim thru and huge overhang, which hides a resident Potato Bass. Red Fang Trigger fish cover the reef along with huge schools of Yellow Snappers, Bigeyes, Fusiliers and Trumpet fish. This is also the place to see Spanish Dancers swimming midwater during the day, quite a rare sight. From here we swim along the top of the reef over colourful soft corals to the second cleaning station. We'll stop and make ourselves negatively buoyant and let the Manta's swim up to and over us (we think they like our bubbles tickling their bellies) and just take in this amazing sight, being careful not to touch them. Then depending on the dive time we either carry on to Manta Canyon, the third cleaning station, or start our ascent to the safety stop. The Manta's carry on being cleaned by Cleaner Wrasse, Goldies and Butterfly fish below us and sometimes we encounter curious Devil rays on the way up.
Our South drop is onto Manta Canyon, a huge wall that drops down to 30m on the sand, with lots of cracks and ledges to look into for Eggshell Cowries, Long nose hawk fish and giant Moray eels. We hide behind the ledge at 24m to let the Manta's come over us, and when we carry on the dive we head over the reef to Manta Pinnacles.
General Info: This reef is rarely affected by strong currents or surge.Because of the distance to, and the quality of, this reef we like to ‘double tank' this dive site and the boat ride there and back gives us plenty of opportunity to find dolphins and whale sharks to swim with.