Fin whale

Haliotis Dive Center is located at the Faial Resort Hotel on the island of Faial, Azores. Open from March to November, you have access to showers and changing rooms, an equipment store, a small classroom, and an inflation station. The Haliotis Faial diving school offers PADI courses with Bubblemaker children's diving, Discover Scuba Diver baptisms, and specialties to improve in Digital Underwater Photographer or Aware fish Identification. Go diving onboard Haliotis Faial's semi-rigid boat, The Lioti, 12 meters long, equipped with two 300 HP Yamaha outboard motors. Benches allow divers to sit down during the sea crossing. The access ladder makes it easy and comfortable for them to enter and exit the water. Safety on board is ensured by the presence of an oxygen kit and first aid equipment. A depth sounder allows you to locate the diving spots of Faial, located offshore. You will quickly reach the best dive sites in the Azores, Princess Alice, and Condor. Dives in the narrow channel, 8.3 km wide, between Faial and Pico, are very popular. The climate and ocean currents in the Azores offer unique diving conditions in Faial. Have great encounters with the blue shark (Prionace Glauca) which is the big star in Faial. The diving center Haliotis Faial has even adopted it as its mascot! You can meet it in the open sea but also sometimes in the coastal areas. These sharks seem to become more numerous in Faial as soon as the water temperature varies between 13 and 18°C. Haliotis Faial's instructors will take you to observe these animals with tapered bodies and long and conical snouts, some of them reaching a length of 4 meters and a weight of 205 kg. Be careful, you may have to wait a long time in the water before you can see their big round eyes! [+]

The Espace Mer diving center is located in Hyères, at the Tour Fondue, on the Giens peninsula, opposite the island of Porquerolles. The Espace Mer diving school offers PADI and FFESSM training courses, from initiation to instructor. Espace Mer organizes freediving courses at sea, from April to November, around the islands of Hyères. You will learn techniques to improve your freediving performance in a variety of environments such as cave and tunnel diving and wreck exploration. Come aboard Espace Mer's boats, whatever your level, either as a group or individually, to visit the most beautiful wrecks in the Mediterranean, the islands of Hyères, and the Port-Cros National Park. There are many activities available for non-divers. Take a day trip to the Golden Islands onboard the Brigantin, a traditional sailing boat. Jump into the water with fins, mask, and snorkel for snorkeling trips. Take the opportunity to discover the Mediterranean fauna. Kayak along the Tour Fondue coast and around the Petit and Grand Ribaud islands, opposite Porquerolles Island. The best thing to do is to go on the boat Mousquemer to have beautiful encounters with dolphins and whales. At sunrise, after a quick 30-minute sail, the boat is positioned above an underwater pit. With binoculars in hand, you can observe blue and white dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales, sperm whales, and fin whales, depending on the currents, the weather, and the season. Sometimes turtles come to the surface to breathe. Thanks to Espace Mer, benefit from a personalized service to get to the islands of Porquerolles, Port Cros, and Le Levant on board a private taxi boat. Oh yes, please note that Espace Mer also provides logistics for film shoots and filming. [+]

Pro Dive Plett is located in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. Rental equipment including 5mm-thick dive wet suits, 2 pieces with hood . On site, Air-filling station. They offer PADI trainings as well as sea excursions from the boat or from the shore, on the shallow House reef in front of the dive Center. Ideal for photographers. The boat trips promise beautiful encounters on the way, on the surface, with the Dolphins and Whales that frequent the bay all year round. Large colony of highly sedentary Cape Fur Seals on the Robberg Peninsula in Plett. Fun dive when you find yourself face to face with them. Only 10 mn away by boat from the dive Center. This is a 4 to 6 m shallow dive suitable for all divers. Discover Scuba Diving with a session in the pool and ... an unforgettable dive with the Seals ! Several must-do sites, with a visibility of 4 to 20 m. Shallow blinders in the Bay of Plettenberg with 3 pinnacles is the paradise of macrophotography with Nudibranches, Octopus, Spiders and Scorpionfish. But above all there are the Raggies Sharks during the summer. Frequent Pyjama Sharks, Leopard Sharks and Rays. In Plettenberg Bay Red Bait Reef is a reef of juvenile reef fish, Cuttlefish and ... Shysharks. Easily accessible from the coast. Very beautiful light appreciated by photographers. Grootbank is very popular for its numerous caves and through passages of 20 to 30 m forming a labyrinth where we cross Raggies Sharks all year round. The reef is beautiful, covered with soft corals and Sponges. Cod, Pyjama Sharks and Shysharks. [+]

The Espirito Azul diving center is located in the marina of Vila Franca do Campo, on the island of Sao Miguel, Azores. Open every day of the year, you make an appointment at Espirito Azul in the morning at 9 am and in the afternoon at 2 pm. For day trips, departure is at 7:00 am with a picnic provided. At Espirito Azul, you will find changing rooms with hot and cold showers, toilets, a store, a workshop to have your equipment serviced, a nitrox, trimix, and oxygen filling station, a room, and a pool of 3, 7, 10, 12 and 15-liter diving cylinders (DIN and INT) with one or two outings. The equipment is provided by Espirito Azul. Fifteen complete sets of equipment are available for rent. There is space to rinse and store your personal equipment. Don't hesitate to bring your rebreather too! When you take your nitrox training at Espirito Azul, you get free nitrox during all your stays in the Espirito Azul dive school! PADI courses for beginners are offered from Discover Scuba Diver to Advanced Open Water Diver. At Espirito Azul, expect two exploration dives per day on one of the 3 RIB boats, starting from the marina of Vila Franca do Campo. Dives include skipper, guide, boat, and gas up to 6 nautical miles from the center, insurance, tank and weights. Visit the best spots in the Azores, in Formigas, and Dollabarat. Ideal for diving with stingrays and eagle rays? Go to Dori and Banco D.Jao De Castro! Snorkeling trips along the coast are also possible. Ask for the photos taken as a souvenir during your dives! The organization of barbecues on the beach and aperitifs in the marina contribute to the nice atmosphere of Espirito Azul. [+]

The Lagon Maoré diving centre is located in the south of Grande-Terre, Mayotte, 45 km from Mamoudzou and on the beach of N'Gouja, inside the small resort Jardin Maoré. A beautiful tropical garden houses 18 bungalows and a restaurant, bordering the beach. Rental of Aqualung equipment and 2 rebreathers is available here. Nitrox 32% is offered to divers who are already Nitrox certified. The training centre Le Lagon Maoré offers PADI TDI SDI SSI FFESSM and ANMP/CEDIP courses from beginners to advanced divers. Qualified instructors, passionate, supervise groups of 4 divers. You embark either on a 9.6 m aluminium barge, approved for 19 divers or on a 10 m aluminium barge for 21 divers. Their powerful motorisation allows them to get to the sites quickly, with safe launches. Regular trips are made to the wreck of the Joachim, a 16-meter long sailing boat, which lies on a 20-meter seabed opposite the hotel. You will enjoy a house reef with a gently sloping seagrass bed, colonised by turtles. In the morning, the drift dives are dedicated to certified divers, along the outer walls of the reef, up to 40 meters deep. The current is checked as soon as the boat arrives at the best spots in Mayotte, by the instructors. Expect good visibility with lots of life: barracudas, rays, groupers, small reef sharks. In the afternoon, you reach the south of the Mayotte Lagoon, after a 5 to 10-minute boat ride. Explore by diving and snorkelling wonderful coral gardens teeming with multicoloured fish and turtles. The coral reefs go down from the surface to 25 meters. Sometimes you will see dolphins on the way to the boat. Ask for night dives to see the small fauna of the Seychelles that you rarely see during the day with shrimps, crabs, pencil urchins and Spanish dancers. [+]