Dive sites, seasons and marine life — researched, mapped, planned.
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The world's diving, one honest atlas.

Dive sites with real depths and seasons. Marine life with real odds. Wrecks with real history. Built for planning actual trips — and honest about what we haven't verified yet.

AI-generated illustration
547Dive sites
106Destinations
57Countries
87Species
76Wrecks
90Guides

Research only — every figure is a labeled range with a confidence level, never a guess dressed as a fact. Verify locally before you dive.

In season

Great right now — September

Everything in season →
September 5/5 Bali & Nusa Penida

Bali & Nusa Penida

Often the best all-around month: dry, clear, and full of life.
Best: Apr–Novall-levels

Bonaire

September 5/5 · Warmest, calmest water of the year.

Cairns & the Ribbon Reefs

September 5/5 · Winds ease; some of the best visibility of the year

Galápagos Islands

September 5/5 · Two seasons, both worth diving. December-May is the warm season…

Komodo

September 5/5 · Superb diving continues with slightly thinner crowds.

Sharm El Sheikh & Ras Mohammed

September 5/5 · Warm sea and thinner crowds - a superb balance.

Explore

Eight diving worlds

All destinations →
Australia, New Zealand & East Asia — illustration

Australia, New Zealand & East Asia

10 destinations · 41 dive sites
Caribbean & Western Atlantic — illustration

Caribbean & Western Atlantic

19 destinations · 106 dive sites
Europe, Atlantic & Mediterranean — illustration

Europe, Atlantic & Mediterranean

9 destinations · 45 dive sites
Indian Ocean & East Africa — illustration

Indian Ocean & East Africa

12 destinations · 60 dive sites
Pacific Islands & Micronesia — illustration

Pacific Islands & Micronesia

16 destinations · 69 dive sites
Red Sea & Middle East — illustration

Red Sea & Middle East

9 destinations · 52 dive sites
Southeast Asia & Coral Triangle — illustration

Southeast Asia & Coral Triangle

18 destinations · 111 dive sites
The Americas & Eastern Pacific — illustration

The Americas & Eastern Pacific

13 destinations · 63 dive sites

Explore by experience

Diving at your level

The map

See the whole atlas at once

Every destination positioned on one world map — zoom a region, click a dot, plan from there.

Open the world map   Marine-life calendar   Water-temperature finder

The big four

The animals people plan trips around

All marine life →
Whale Shark — illustration

Whale Shark

Where and when →
Reef Manta Ray — illustration

Reef Manta Ray

Where and when →
Scalloped Hammerhead — illustration

Scalloped Hammerhead

Where and when →
Green Sea Turtle — illustration

Green Sea Turtle

Where and when →
Southern Stingray
AI-generated illustration for The Scuba Atlas — illustrative, not a documentary photograph.

Species spotlight

Southern Stingray

Hypanus americanus · IUCN: NT

The southern stingray is Caribbean sand made animate — a gray-brown diamond that erupts from an apparently empty bottom, wingtips rippling, whip tail trailing, a cloud of silt hanging where it lay. Watch a flat for ten minutes and its excavation pits reveal a workaday hunter that spends its life…

Reliable places to meet one:

Full species guide →   All 87 species →

Wreck of the week

Million Dollar Point

Second World War military equipment dump (debris field, not a vessel) · sunk 1945 · 1–40 m

When the Pacific war ended, Espiritu Santo held one of the largest American bases on earth, and shipping mountains of used equipment home made no economic sense. The story told on Santo — supported by what lies on the seabed — is that the US offered the lot to the Anglo-French…

The full story →   All 76 wrecks →

Million Dollar Point — illustration
AI-generated illustration for The Scuba Atlas — illustrative, not a documentary photograph.

When to go

Diving has seasons. We mapped them.

Whale sharks are a month, not a place. Pick when you can travel and see what the ocean is doing then — water temperatures, visibility and the animals actually present.

Open the trip planner

Learn

Better diving, plainly explained

All guides →

Diving with an Action Camera: Small Rig, Watchable Footage

Photography · 4 min read

Adaptive and Accessible Diving: Weightlessness Is the Point

Travel · 4 min read

Air vs Nitrox: What Enriched Air Actually Buys You

Comparison · 4 min read

Ascent Rates: Why Slow Wins

Safety · 4 min read

Back-Inflate vs Jacket BCD: Trim, Travel, and the Surface Question

Comparison · 4 min read

When to Go Where: Dive Seasons Around the World

Travel · 5 min read

News

The ocean this week

All news →

Chicago’s Only Black Dive Club Partners With Diveheart

DeeperBlue ↗ · 18:00 UTC

5 Things Every First-Time Freediving Competitor Should Know

DeeperBlue ↗ · 14:00 UTC

Ocean Advocates Condemn Bill Passage That Would Delay North Atlantic Right Whale…

DeeperBlue ↗ · 06:00 UTC

Inside Australia’s $34m shark drone program – video

The Guardian — Marine life ↗ · Sep 01

Vitamarinaweb Launches Its New Digital Marine Species Atlas

DeeperBlue ↗ · Sep 01
Atlas data brief — written in-house from our own data September dive conditions: Red Sea, Indonesia and Galapagos at peakIn September, Sharm El Sheikh and Ras Mohammed (/destination/sharm-el-sheikh) and Komodo (/destination/komodo) both reach top rating, alongside the Galapagos Islands… · 05:35 UTC
Atlas data brief — written in-house from our own data September dive conditions: Galapagos, Komodo and Bonaire at peakIn September, Galapagos (/destination/galapagos), Komodo (/destination/komodo), Bonaire (/destination/bonaire), and Bali (/destination/bali) all sit at their seasonal best.… · Sep 01

Editorial

The guides worth arguing with

Comparisons →

The Best Budget Diving Destinations

Where a dive dollar goes furthest once you land — honest per-dive and course-cost realities, and the flight math that decides…
4 min read

The Best Dive Destinations for Beginners

Eight destinations where new divers get warm water, mild conditions, and genuinely memorable diving above 18 m — each with its…
4 min read

The Best Diving in Southeast Asia

The Coral Triangle's greatest hits ranked — reef, muck, wrecks, and seasonal windows from Raja Ampat to Richelieu Rock, permits…
4 min read

The Best Diving in the Caribbean

From Cozumel's drifts to Cuba's untouched mangrove reefs: the Caribbean ranked honestly, with hurricane-season math and the…
4 min read

Top destinations

The heavyweights

For builders

Ask it, script it, agent it

Ask the Data answers questions from the atlas in plain English. The free JSON API and copy-paste AI-agent prompts point your own tools at the same structured data.

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Australia, New Zealand & East Asia

Cairns & the Ribbon ReefsNingaloo ReefCoral Sea & Osprey ReefOkinawa & the Kerama IslandsPoor Knights IslandsTownsville & the YongalaGreen IslandIzu Peninsula

Caribbean & Western Atlantic

BonaireCozumelRiviera Maya & the CenotesBelize Barrier ReefGrand CaymanIsla Mujeres & CancúnRoatánTiger Beach & Grand Bahama

Europe, Atlantic & Mediterranean

Malta & GozoSilfra & IcelandThe AzoresCanary IslandsLarnaca & the ZenobiaScapa FlowArctic NorwayMadeira

Indian Ocean & East Africa

North & South Malé AtollsAri AtollBaa Atoll & Hanifaru BayAliwal Shoal & UmkomaasMafia IslandMauritiusSeychellesSodwana Bay

Pacific Islands & Micronesia

PalauChuuk (Truk) LagoonFakaravaKona, HawaiʻiRangiroaTaveuni & Rainbow ReefBeqa Lagoon & Pacific HarbourEspiritu Santo

Red Sea & Middle East

Sharm El Sheikh & Ras MohammedBrothers, Daedalus & St John'sDahabHurghada & El GounaMarsa Alam & the Deep SouthAqabaDaymaniyat IslandsMusandam Peninsula

Southeast Asia & Coral Triangle

Bali & Nusa PenidaKomodoRaja AmpatSipadan & MabulAnilaoCoronKoh TaoLembeh Strait

The Americas & Eastern Pacific

Galápagos IslandsCocos IslandFlorida KeysSea of Cortez & Cabo PulmoSocorro & the RevillagigedosBritish ColumbiaCalifornia Channel IslandsCosta Rica Pacific Coast