Diving in Tanzania

Mafia Island and the Chole Bay marine park: whale sharks, living coral and almost no other divers

5 resorts at this destination

Tanzania — diving on Mafia Island: the Chole Bay marine park, whale sharks from October to February, coral gardens and mangroves. Dive resorts, prices, seasons and how to get there.

Why divers come here

The Chole Bay marine park — Tanzania's first marine park and its most strictly protected reef
Whale sharks off Mafia from October to February — feeding at the surface, met on snorkel
More than four hundred fish species and some fifty coral genera within a single bay
Few divers: on most sites yours is the only boat
Turtles come ashore to lay their eggs on the beaches of Juani and Chole
Zanzibar and Pemba are a short hop away — Pemba's walls are rated the best in East Africa

What you'll meet underwater

Whale sharks (October to February)

Green and hawksbill turtles

Reef sharks and whitetips

Humpback whales pass through from July to October

Dugongs, rarely, in the shallows

Trevally, barracuda, Napoleon wrasse

Moray eels, scorpionfish, lionfish

Hard corals, table acropora and the coral gardens of Chole Bay

Photos: credits and licences

Practical information

Best season

Diving runs all year except April and May, when the long rains come and some lodges close.

Whale sharks off Mafia Island appear from October to February, peaking from November to January.

The clearest water is from December to March

Water temperature

25–29 °C

Visibility

10–30 m

Wetsuit

3 mm year-round, a shorty in the warm months

5 mm in July and August

Experience level

Open Water for the Chole Bay reefs and the mangrove shallows

Advanced for the outer walls and the sites with current.

Swimming with whale sharks needs only snorkelling

Getting there

Several airlines fly direct from Moscow to Zanzibar (ZNZ) in about ten hours.

For Mafia Island, connect through Dar es Salaam (DAR) on an Auric Air or Coastal Aviation domestic flight of roughly thirty minutes.

It is a ten- to twenty-minute drive from Mafia airport to the lodges, and the transfer is usually included in the room rate.

Airports

Dar es Salaam (DAR) — international, Zanzibar (ZNZ) — international, Mafia Island (MFA) — domestic flights, Kilimanjaro (JRO) — for a safari before or after