Diving in Madagascar worth it?

[Evan S]

Hi all, new to this forum. Wife and I have about 50 dives under our belt. For comparison, we have dove all around the Caribbean, Belize and Philippines.
We are planning a trip to Madagascar the first two weeks of June and possibly ending our trip up in Nosy Be / Nosy Komba and the small surrounding islands. Has anyone been there? Is it worth diving up there? How was the diving overall?

Obviously we are doing plenty of land activities as well during our stay but I want to factor in enough days for diving in the end if we decide it’s worth it.

Thanks!

 

[DivealotZA]

We're hopefully going to head out there next year to go diving, I've heard only good things!

Try get some Fluo diving in, it looks awesome:

Fluro Diving | Sakatia Lodge

 

[Wingy]

Yes - it is worth diving as long as you remember you are in the Indian Ocean quite far from the equator so don't expect lush soft corals ect like in the Phillipines.

There is some really good nudi action around, leopard sharks, heaps of turtles, filefish, the most chilled out Titan trigger fish on the planet. Some surprisingly big grouper etc around and lots of langoustine. Viz is variable esp in cyclone season where you can have lovely clear blue one second and a current comes along and next minute you're in deep green water with a lot of particulate.

My advice is - go with a reputable operator because you are a long way from home and a long way from help in an extremely poor country which is also a very corrupt country.

Cannot recommend Nosy Sakatia highly enough - even though I did not dive with them I had great correspondence from them at their home in Europe when they were trying to assist me find someone to go out with in cyclone season. Be mindful that many hotels and dive shops close down during cyclone season.

I can also recommend Nosy Be Scuba (who I did dive with even though they too were closed the whale tour guy took their place and used their boat and equipment) and Megabe Plongee - check out their FB pages.

Enjoy this very very special part of the world

 

[npole]

If you go there and you gonna stay in Nosy Be, PM me if you wish.. i'll get you in contact with a very experienced (since 1996) dive OP there.

 

[Streydog]

I have been watching a you tube channel, Sailing SV Delos. They have a few episodes in Madagascar. There are mostly top side activities on video but they did film some diving here and there. I think it would be kind of cool to watch prior to going there

 

[Fires]

I had some family go there end of last year and they weren't too impressed with the diving. Wish I would know which area specifically and which operator. But it was definitely in the Nosy Bay area. Look, we all know a dive op and its crew can make or break a dive trip, but they said in general the underwater life was lacking and very over fished.

They even managed to rescue a fish from a cage that it was trapped in.

So not my personal opinion, but immediate family. Again, it would depend where you go I imagine?

 

[jdevic]

Definitely go to Nosy Be area if you want to dive.
I did some diving at Ifaty (southwest) towards the end of my N7 road trip - definitely would not recommend it. Boring sites, poor fishing boat, poor equipment, poor service...

 

[TruckDiver1981]

We are looking at a holiday in Madagascar in the near future if we have the time, did the OP get some diving in?