Shayne's Reef

Every place I've been diving so far has had a few types of underwater wildlife that are very common for that area, as well as several other types that can be found all over the world. In Thailand I saw plenty of large trigger fish and small, silvery barracudas. In Belize last February there were lots of eagle rays and sea turtles, and on the Pacific side of Costa Rica there were hundreds of puffer fish, a few octopuses, and even a large white-tipped shark. I was excited today to see what sights are typical while diving in Zanzibar.

This morning at “Sensation Divers” dive shop I met the local African dive-master who I would be diving with today and got fitted for my mask, fins, weight belt, and BCD. As I was checking out the equipment a couple of Sensation Divers employees loaded extra tanks of oxygen into a rickety wooden cart that was hauled by an ox to the boat that took us out to the ocean. Many of the boats in Zanzibar are archaic looking wooden contraptions called “dhows”. For my first dive of the day I rode in a dhow to a dive site called “Shayne's Reef” with three other divers, the dive master, and a couple of African boatmen.Zanzibar's colorful coral reefs are packed with large scorpion fish and starfish. I've seen starfish plenty of times before while diving, but the species in Zanzibar is very different than what I'm used to. The starfish I saw today were smooth bright blue or bright green creatures with several arrangements of black spikes sticking up on their bodies. The starfish are appropriately named “Crown of Thorns Starfish”. I saw a few different varieties of scorpion fish as well. Besides the typical orange and white striped scorpion fish I also saw some that were colored so much like sand that they were nearly indistinguishable from the ocean floor, “Weedy Scorpion Fish” that were blended in with patches of seaweed, and a large “Bearded Scorpion Fish” that laid on a rock and stared at us as we drifted by. At Shayne's Reef I also spotted a green moray eel, a few blue-spotted sting rays, several banner fish, and two small parrot fish.

A forty-five minute ride on the dhow took us to the next dive site, “Hunga 1”. The weather today was unfortunately very rainy and cold. That makes very little difference underwater, but I spent a lot of time wet and shivering on the dhow. I didn't see a whole lot at Hunga that wasn't also at Shayne's Reef, but I did take some time to get a better look at the exotic pink and blue coral. I don't remember exactly what I've seen on other dives as far as coral goes, but I don't think it's anything like what I saw off the coast of Zanzibar today. Along with the strange coral there was plenty of anenome that drifted back and forth with the current like a flimsy tree in breezy weather.