“As a Divemaster and dive boat skipper working out of Coral Bay and Exmouth on the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia for over 15 years, I’ve been lucky enough to experience the very best Ningaloo has to offer.”
“With over 200 documented dive sites to choose from, I have personally dived (and taken 100’s of divers) to many of the most amazing places here that showcase the area’s diving diversity.
From the colourful soft coral gardens of the Muiron Islands and Exmouth Gulf to the extensive fields of pristine hard coral gardens and reef shark cleaning station of Bill’s Bay in Coral Bay (an area bigger than several football fields!) to the many outer reef dive sites along the Ningaloo Reef famous for megafauna encounters such as Mantas, Whale Sharks, Humpback Whales, Tiger Sharks, etc., each dive is unique in its own way.
Over the next few months I’ll be providing a brief run-down of some of the more memorable must-do dives for visitors to this beautiful part of the world.”
Shaine Middleton
Divemaster, Skipper and Tour Host – Exmouth, Western Australia
SCUBA Diving Lighthouse Bay
Located at the north-western tip of North West Cape, just to the north of the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse. There are several popular dive sites here with moorings installed so you don’t have to anchor and damage the seafloor, which is great. Maximum depth in the bay is about 14 meters and these sites are frequented by the dive operators and are also quite popular with locals.
The best of these sites is undoubtedly Blizzard Ridge (the 2 southernmost moorings in the bay). This place is like a meeting place for a large proportion of the species of fish found on the Ningaloo Reef. It is pretty much just a big crack in the reef that forms a ridge and the site itself is not that spectacular, except for the swarms of fish that congregate here in huge numbers. You will also see turtles, sea snakes, White Tip Reef and Wobbegong sharks, lots of nudibranchs, and the occasional Manta Ray (it has a Manta cleaning station).
Other popular sites in the bay include Gulliver’s and Labyrinth, also with moorings and similar marine life to be seen. Labyrinth has a turtle cleaning station so it’s a good place to see them.
There are a few other dive sites in the bay like “100’s and 1000’s” and Fish Hole which are also worth a look. Lighthouse Bay is famous for its plethora of marine life.
