Arcadia/Deans
Distance: 9.5kmTravel Time: 15-20 min
Max Depth: 33m
Suitable For: Advanced Open Water/ 2*
Best served with Nitrox!
Another of our offshore reefs, Arcadia/Deans is a huge amphitheater with a wall ranging from 3 to 6 meters high enclosing it. It is not possible to see the whole site on one dive, hence the two names, for the two different routes. The sea life seen here is largely the same as Deep Reef South, with mantas, sharks, rays and pelagic fish as well as turtles, reef fish and macro. We have also seen schooling hammerhead sharks here a number of times. There is a beautiful chimney from the top of the reef to the sand bottom which is full of reef fish and often large groupers, offering a great swim through.
One particularly friendly resident potato grouper often visits us as we approach her territory, 'Super Grouper', can take you by surprise as she silently appears at your shoulder and gives you a smile! (She also loves to chase delayed SMB's when they are launched!) All our offshore reefs give us fantastic opportunities to see humpback whales from June to November, with August/September being peak season.
These huge animals can be seen daily from the boat and lucky divers will see them on SCUBA, (one client in 2009 had 4 encounters on SCUBA in 6 days!) Arcadia/Deans is a large reef and it takes at least 2 dives to see all of the shallow areas, many more if we venture deeper than 30m and undertake planned, stage decompression.
