STORY Seychelles, Mahe, Silhouette and North Island

The shallow reefs around Mahe, Silhouette Island and North Island are home to colourful fish of all kinds, as well as sharks, sea turtles, and migratory pelagics, including the occasional manta rays and whale shark. Further afield, divers can explore steep drop-offs, submerged boulder fields, caverns, and swim-throughs. Larger wildlife is sometimes seen in these more remote diving areas, with lucky groups encountering sharks, turtles and more.

Diving Mahe

Mahe offers plenty of diving suitable for all experience levels. Inshore sites like Lighthouse and Aquarium boast unique granite boulder fields and expansive hard coral reefs, and the island is also home to numerous shipwrecks - both accidentally and intentionally sunk. The Ennerdale, a former British Royal Navy tanker, now has a lovely, light-filled wheelhouse and intact propeller that are worth exploring. Smaller vessels, like the Aldebaran and Dredger wrecks, are now thriving artificial reefs with a thick blanket of coral and are visited by marine wildlife in all shapes and sizes.

Willy’s Rocks dive site, on the western tip of Mahe’s North West Bay, is known for whale shark sightings during the season between September and November - although encounters are less frequent than in the past. Nearby Cap Ternay has a hard coral reef that drops steeply to a sandy bottom with massive boulder outcrops. This site’s strong currents attract turtles, sharks and rays, and schooling fish like tuna and jacks. Headed due west, a number of offshore banks boast deeper drop-offs and submerged granite formations patrolled by reef sharks.

To the northeast lies Brissare Rock, a dramatic granite block that emerges from the ocean. Below the surface, this massive slab and its surrounding outcrops are adorned with soft coral and sea fans, and clouded by reef fish. Keep an eye out for morays, stingrays, and colourful macro creatures hidden in the reef.

Silhouette Island diving

Silhouette Island is ringed by half a dozen dive sites, with a mix of submerged boulder fields and fringing coral reefs. The most popular site, Shark Bank, actually lies halfway between Mahe and Silhouette Island. Known for strong currents, this collection of granite boulders and gullies often attracts eagle rays, tuna, barracuda, and rare whale shark encounters in the season. You may also spot schools of snapper and batfish out in the blue.

North Island diving

Known for its fantastic fringing reefs, this seldom-visited island is home to some of the best diving in the Seychelles Inner Islands. Sites here boast towering coral-carpeted pinnacles extending all the way to the surface from a sandy bottom. Nearly every fish species known in the Seychelles can be seen, in addition to whitetip reef sharks, stingrays and nurse sharks.