Since I had some trouble finding the information I wanted I thought I would post my review of diving the east coast of Africa in Tanzania and Mozambique. Note, that these are just my thoughts and based on one trip and limited dives at that. All diving was done in May/June. We have done about 125 dive through the Caribbean, Central America, Thailand, Indonesia, New Zealand, USA, Tonga and a few other random places. We are not ultra-divers, but we have done some in different places enough to feel like we could judge.
Zanzibar, Tanzania
We only dove out of Stonetown and only did two dives. The visabilty was okay, not great. We saw some nice lion fish and others and on a wreck at about 30 meters some nice french grunts, but all in all not that many fish. Wouldn't recommend to experienced divers, for newer divers was okay. We dove with Bahari divers and they were fine, we did not dive with One Ocean, though they seemed to be better equipped and more professional they were sticklers on depth (despite our extensive dive experience). We did not dive off the NE coast of Zanzibar which is supposed to be better. Cannot comment on it.
Pemba, Tanzania
Caught the ferry and bus to Wete on Pemba north of Zanzibar to dive near Fondu. We thought this was very good diving, despite two solid days of rain rain rain. We did 4 dives, but light was low because of the rain but the coral is nice and in great shape, plus since the island is actually a deep water island versus zanzibar which is more part of the mainland (geographically) you get more pelagics. Saw some big napolean wrasses, turtles and beautiful nudibranches we had never seen before. Diving is deeper here prob 20-30 meters on average though there is shallow reefs to multillevel on. Currents can be very strong here and some times we were flying over the reefs! More challenging diving, for sure, but not impossible, I would recommend you be confident to dive here. We again dove with Bahari divers since you get a package discount. Don't go here if you need high levels of accomodations, the town is nothing and the hotels are not very nice. If you are a traveler you'll be okay, but if you just want to dive maybe shell out the huge bucks and stay at Fondu resort. Overall, worth the hassle.
Pemba, Mozambique.
We did 4 dives here and in general were not impressed. Only one of them was really worth it, Dolphin's Playground where we saw nice fish, flat worms and nudibranches. The coral is okay here, though it is all purple for some odd reason. That being said is cheap at $30 US per dive all in. We dove with "Brenda" can't recall the dive company name, she is a one woman shop in town. She is a bit nuts, but harmless, I recommend taking your own computer and monitoring your own deco time. In general I would pass unless you were in the area and really wanted to dive, and then I would make sure to go to the far sites.
Vilankulos (Bazaruto Archipelago), Mozambique.
We only did 2 dive here, but thought it was very good. We dove two mile reef as it is generall supposed to be the best place to dive. Viz was not great, maybe 10 meters since the norhtern winds were blowing and a storm had just finished. However, the fish life was outstanding. Huge 75 kilo groupers, the largest batfish we had ever seen (like trashcan lids) and lots of other varied fish. We didn't see too many rays, but our DM said he was shocked that they always see torpedo rays, shovel nose, some mantas some times etc. One problem is the reef is at 20-25 meters so your bottom time is capped and there is nothing in between to stop at on the way up, though a school of batfish hung with us the whole time. The other problem, and this is the biggie, is cost. Diving 750 rand for 2 dives (about $115 US). Too expensive in our opinion, but if you have the money, certainly worth the diving. Also the islands of the archipelago themselves are just beautiful. Staying on them cost a fortune (about $150-200 per person per day). All dive operators here (2 or 3 I think) seem to be fine.
Tofo, Mozambique
This was our last stop on our dive table and was very good. We did 6 dives here an again, viz was not great, but that's what brings in the big stuff. We saw some mantas and even a whaleshark on scuba. But the best is to snorkle with the whale sharks. Lots of fish life again, big big groupers, nice honeycomb eels, juvenile angels and nice macro life on some sites. Can be currents here, though not terrible, not zero. Some sites are deeper (and they are all sticklers for advanced certification), however, you can do an "adventure deep" where you read 1 chapter of padi and do a little number thing at 25 meters and then they will all take you to the deep sites. Only costs about $10 us and you get a cert you can take elsewhere in the world to show so in theory you can dive at the advanced level. Recommend diving here for certain, not the cheapest as the first dive is 320 rand and then goes down 10 rand per dive, but well worth it. Also the above ground atmosphere is great, huge beach to chill on and just very relaxed. We dove with Liquid adventures, but would recommend Diversity Scuba. We did not dive with diversity, but they seemed to be the most on top of things and organized as well as knowledgable. Tofo seemed okay as well, both will probably have fuller boats than Liquid. Liquid was a bit too disorganized for us (took for-ever to launch) but we did get more input on sites to dive. However, they were sticklers on 45 mintues of bottom time even on shallower sites, and we came up with lots of air which annoyed us as it wasn't cheap.
So, that's that, hope it helps someone, but everyone's diving is different, so this is just my two cents!
Zanzibar, Tanzania
We only dove out of Stonetown and only did two dives. The visabilty was okay, not great. We saw some nice lion fish and others and on a wreck at about 30 meters some nice french grunts, but all in all not that many fish. Wouldn't recommend to experienced divers, for newer divers was okay. We dove with Bahari divers and they were fine, we did not dive with One Ocean, though they seemed to be better equipped and more professional they were sticklers on depth (despite our extensive dive experience). We did not dive off the NE coast of Zanzibar which is supposed to be better. Cannot comment on it.
Pemba, Tanzania
Caught the ferry and bus to Wete on Pemba north of Zanzibar to dive near Fondu. We thought this was very good diving, despite two solid days of rain rain rain. We did 4 dives, but light was low because of the rain but the coral is nice and in great shape, plus since the island is actually a deep water island versus zanzibar which is more part of the mainland (geographically) you get more pelagics. Saw some big napolean wrasses, turtles and beautiful nudibranches we had never seen before. Diving is deeper here prob 20-30 meters on average though there is shallow reefs to multillevel on. Currents can be very strong here and some times we were flying over the reefs! More challenging diving, for sure, but not impossible, I would recommend you be confident to dive here. We again dove with Bahari divers since you get a package discount. Don't go here if you need high levels of accomodations, the town is nothing and the hotels are not very nice. If you are a traveler you'll be okay, but if you just want to dive maybe shell out the huge bucks and stay at Fondu resort. Overall, worth the hassle.
Pemba, Mozambique.
We did 4 dives here and in general were not impressed. Only one of them was really worth it, Dolphin's Playground where we saw nice fish, flat worms and nudibranches. The coral is okay here, though it is all purple for some odd reason. That being said is cheap at $30 US per dive all in. We dove with "Brenda" can't recall the dive company name, she is a one woman shop in town. She is a bit nuts, but harmless, I recommend taking your own computer and monitoring your own deco time. In general I would pass unless you were in the area and really wanted to dive, and then I would make sure to go to the far sites.
Vilankulos (Bazaruto Archipelago), Mozambique.
We only did 2 dive here, but thought it was very good. We dove two mile reef as it is generall supposed to be the best place to dive. Viz was not great, maybe 10 meters since the norhtern winds were blowing and a storm had just finished. However, the fish life was outstanding. Huge 75 kilo groupers, the largest batfish we had ever seen (like trashcan lids) and lots of other varied fish. We didn't see too many rays, but our DM said he was shocked that they always see torpedo rays, shovel nose, some mantas some times etc. One problem is the reef is at 20-25 meters so your bottom time is capped and there is nothing in between to stop at on the way up, though a school of batfish hung with us the whole time. The other problem, and this is the biggie, is cost. Diving 750 rand for 2 dives (about $115 US). Too expensive in our opinion, but if you have the money, certainly worth the diving. Also the islands of the archipelago themselves are just beautiful. Staying on them cost a fortune (about $150-200 per person per day). All dive operators here (2 or 3 I think) seem to be fine.
Tofo, Mozambique
This was our last stop on our dive table and was very good. We did 6 dives here an again, viz was not great, but that's what brings in the big stuff. We saw some mantas and even a whaleshark on scuba. But the best is to snorkle with the whale sharks. Lots of fish life again, big big groupers, nice honeycomb eels, juvenile angels and nice macro life on some sites. Can be currents here, though not terrible, not zero. Some sites are deeper (and they are all sticklers for advanced certification), however, you can do an "adventure deep" where you read 1 chapter of padi and do a little number thing at 25 meters and then they will all take you to the deep sites. Only costs about $10 us and you get a cert you can take elsewhere in the world to show so in theory you can dive at the advanced level. Recommend diving here for certain, not the cheapest as the first dive is 320 rand and then goes down 10 rand per dive, but well worth it. Also the above ground atmosphere is great, huge beach to chill on and just very relaxed. We dove with Liquid adventures, but would recommend Diversity Scuba. We did not dive with diversity, but they seemed to be the most on top of things and organized as well as knowledgable. Tofo seemed okay as well, both will probably have fuller boats than Liquid. Liquid was a bit too disorganized for us (took for-ever to launch) but we did get more input on sites to dive. However, they were sticklers on 45 mintues of bottom time even on shallower sites, and we came up with lots of air which annoyed us as it wasn't cheap.
So, that's that, hope it helps someone, but everyone's diving is different, so this is just my two cents!
