Best visibilty

[Hike]

What destination and/or dive site has the best visibility? Any details about the visibilty (how many meters?) and best season would be great.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Viz is going to change based on weather and current. The best I've experienced was Grand Cayman and Cozumel. There have been times when the viz was (seemed) limitless until everything was lost in the the deep blue (100 feet or more.) There's been times I'd be at 70 feet or more and can look up to clearly see the bottom of the boat. These same locations have had viz in the 20 to 30 foot range, again depending on weather and current.

 

[dolesorchard]

The best I have experienced is Bonaire, sitting on the bottom at 130' and could see a mooring on the surface perfectly clearly.

 

[TSandM]

The best I've ever seen was in Coz. We could see ripples in the sand at 100+ feet, as soon as we got underwater. It was like that for a week, and it was in March, IIRC.

 

[robint]

I agree with the others.... best Vis is either Cozumel or Bonaire. I think the vis in Coz is best from Apr-Aug as the seas tend to be calmer. Bonaire, year round is great but any windy conditions tend to stir up the sand and decrease vis. I would bet that I have seen 200' horizontal vis in Cozumel.

Why the interest in "best vis"? I have found that some places with lower vis actually are much better diving. Calif and NC come to mind specifically. Best vis I ever saw in Calif was maybe 50', but in the kelp forest with the sun twinkling down I swear it is like angels are singing! Also, Calif kelp forest has some of the more interesting fish I have seen anywhere in the world. NC diving is deep, dark with low vis and WWII wrecks and sharks.... it doesn't get much better than that for either.

robin

 

[Wookie]

I think the best vis is going to be out in blue water with no bottom and sharks, mahi mahi, dolphin, wahoo, whales, mantas, and other pelagic fishes swimming around. The vis is always good regardless of weather because there is no runoff, no churned up storm mass, and flocculants tend to settle out of the water. Blue Water diving is amazing.

What comes close is those places like seamounts where the bottom doesn't quite break the surface. The Flower Gardens meets this criteria, but it isn't guaranteed because of river outflow into the Gulf of Mexico. There are seamounts in a lot of places like Chinchorro bank, Silver bank, Alacranes reef, and others throughout the Caribbean. These coral outcrops occur throughout the world, but getting there is a bit of a pain. You might check with a surfing liveaboard. They go to these places for surfers.

 

[Hike]

Thanks for all the feedback, the reason why I asked about the best vis is because I read an article about diving in Antarctica with 200 meter visibility where it was tough to tell that you you were underwater as the water is so clear, it feels like you are floating in space. I have dove with visibility of 30 meters+ in Maldives/Sipadan/Indonesia, and was wondering if there was any better spots around. I have heard that Layang Layang and Sipadan gets visibility of 40 to 60 meters sometimes and was wondering if there was other spots as good if not better

 

[Insta-Gator]

Hike, I'd give my eye teeth for a month of diving in the South Pacific.

 

[ed.hamilton1]

Best I have seen while diving in salt water was the other week in Marrison Island in the Philippines at least 100ft other than that the fresh water area of the centoes. near playa del carmen in mexico 300ft plus amazing