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Oman Underwater Photo Sites (2)
I have been diving i Oman for a few years now, both North and South, but my favourite dive will always be the aquarium. I have always tried to end the weekends diving with a visit to the aquarium, its an easy shore dive, entering in a small rocky gully sinking down onto table coral where we find all sorts of small marine life, usually lobsters hiding in the coral and puffer fish hanging around. we then make our way across the bay to the aquarium itself.It starts off with a small rocky reef, loads of small fish, clown fish in their anemones, scorpion fish spread around, you can usually see rays and turtles here. moving towards the mouth of the bay you pass through the main coral which is covered with small marine life and for a while we had our own nurse shark, which hid amongst the coral, then pass on to the wall keeping an eye out for lion fish, stingrays normally settled on the bottom, depending on air consumption you can exit the bay to check out bigger reefs, but then turn around to pass back through the bay again, I will always love this dive. Thi is a very good dive site to train on, the middle of the bay has a flat bottom with sand, after carrying out your training you can show students lots of life and it can all be contained withing the bay.
Only problem with the site is it is 80 km from Salalah, the nearest big town and we always took all our own equipment and compressors, camping on the beach for weekends and longer when there are holidays.
The dive is also a good snorkelling site.
| Facts about The Aquarium, Dhofar It is in Oman- The Aquarium, Dhofar is in the Indian Ocean.
- The typical depth is 0-20 Metres 0-60 Feet.
- The typical visibility is 3-10 Metres 10-30 Feet.
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For me the dive that summed up our whole trip was Limah Rock. This is a large island that juts magnificently up from the sea. It is over 300m high and sinks down over 60m into the depths. We dived Limah Rock on our last day, the tide was just about to turn so there was no tide movement and the sea was flat calm it was perfect conditions for a dive. We stepped off the dive platform and slowly descended through what felt like an aquarium. The fish below us would move aside and as soon as we had passed the gap would close so that we were constantly surrounded.
This dive we were on a mission. The dive guide had told us that seahorses live on a large rock at 29m so we were off to find them. At that depth we would not have long so I was relieved to be able to see the rock from 20m away, there would be no searching in low visibility for us. Approaching the rock there was no seahorses to be seen. Then as we looked closer one was found holding onto a piece of soft coral. It was small and blended perfectly with its surroundings, using natural camouflage to hide from predators.
Unfortunately we did not have time to look for more but as we turned to ascend I was amazed at the sight that met me. From nearly 30m down I could see the bottom of our dhow. There were several pairs of divers gliding over coral through so many fishes that you could not possibly count them all. Silhouetted against the sun was a school of large batfish. I turned and looked along the reef. Larger fish were gathered a little way off, the water was so clear that they appeared to be floating in mid air with nothing to support them. Further up a shoal of fish swam by at speed as if they were in a rush to go somewhere important. We slowly made our way up the side of the reef looking into every hole and under every overhang.
I could not believe the colours in the coral. It seemed as if every colour you could think of was there in every shape imaginable. There was large soft cabbage coral in a soft green, spiky teddy bear coral in red and yellow, purple soft coral and no end of brown and green table coral. All too soon this dive was over and we had to ascend to the surface but it is one that will get a special mention in my log book.
The dive trip came to an end that day as we arrived back in Dibba but for the divers it will live with them a long time. We took nothing but pictures, we left nothing but bubbles......we will be back.
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