EXPERIENCE MARINE LIFE IN PEMBA ISLAND WITH OUR DIVE TOURS
Diving in Pemba Island is really quite something. It has the most spectacularly healthy reefs in Africa. Pemba Island is a stand alone, world class dive destination. As Gavin Goodhart, Director of Ambrosia Television (UK) said: “I would say that Misali Island and the north of Pemba are easily one of the healthiest 30 reefs in the world.”
Diving in Pemba Island will see you plunge over coral covered walls, soar over coral strewn reef slopes, and enormous, healthy bommies and fans that are surrounded by a plethora of reef fish.
The Njao Gap is host to schools of chevron barracuda, jacks and snapper. This is an area of fantastic biodiversity, with macro sites such as the Aquarium and Major Eggers Ascent, just south of the Njao Gap, and the occasional hammerhead shark patrolling inside the gap.
Misali Island has unbroken coral, steep walls, mobula rays and the occasional big shark come by.
The Fundo Gap sees dogtooth tuna hunting along its walls, schools of horse eyed Jacks and trevalley. Giant groupers sit territorially in holes in the walls and most sites have a resident Maori wrasse. The Fundo Gap is where the jacks can blot out the sun.
Pemba is also home to Ribbon Eels, Fire Dartfish and Leaffish. The Nudibranch’s are also prolific. When diving in Pemba Island you often see the famous 30cm Spanish dancer!
If you can find Raf’s secret site, Slobodan Milosevic’s bunker, you will be surrounded by fish for the entire dive. This is the number one dive site in the whole of Pemba, but you need slack tide to best enjoy it.
Long before we were involved in the travel industry, one of our co-founders, Raf Jah, set up a dive company on Pemba Island, called Swahili Divers. He lived, worked and dived on the Island for 19 years. With his team, he found many of the dive sites and named them. Raf, a PADI instructor and NAUI instructor trainer, sold Swahili Divers in 2016, but he remains the authority on Pemba’s diving.
