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.