Blue Hole Diving
I’ve been an avid scuba diver for most of my life and I find it to be one of the most exhilarating sports around. You get to experience some of the most beautiful places in the world, face challenges and use all your strategic and analytical skills. It’s also so quiet under water. No screens, no phones, no emails, just you and the deep blue sea.
Blue Holes
Blue Holes are among my favorite diving spots and a fascinating phenomena. They’re basically sink holes in the ocean floor, sometimes caves or a system of caves. In either case, what distinguishes them is that they descend vertically into the depths of the ocean landscape. The name obviously derives from the visual effect of the depth. The deeper the hole, the darker blue the water, and the greater the contrast with the surface water.
You will find blue holes in low-lying coastal regions, which thousands of years ago, were not submerged. Forming over a millennium of time, they are the consequence of erosion due to a complex interplay of shifting geological formations and chemical changes occurring in ocean waters.
Blue holes offer a fascinating and very different diving experience. Unlike other diving hot spots, blue hole diving is not typically going to bring you face-to-face with beautiful fish and colorful marine life. However you will see stunning stalactites and stalagmites that have formed due to weather-related chemical interactions. Some of these create caverns that can be explored along the way. But for many, the main attraction isn’t the site seeing but rather the thrill.
Only for the Experienced
A blue hole feels like a bottomless pit. The seemingly endless depth can cause disorientation, making for a dangerous rather than pleasurable outcome. So you need to be a very experienced scuba diver before you tackle it. In addition to skill, you also need the right equipment, and it wouldn’t hurt to know what to expect.
Blue Hole Diving Sites
There are quite a few blue holes all over the world. Some more frequently explored than others, here are a few of the most popular spots.
Dean’s Blue Hole
Dean’s Blue Hole is the second deepest blue hole in the world and one of the most beautiful ones to dive in. It’s located in the Bahamas, in a bay west of Clarence Town. The hole descends for more than 200 meters. The diameter at the surface is only around 25 to 30 meters, but once you descend 20 meters, it opens, reaching a width of 100 meters.
Dahab Blue Hole
Located in the Red Sea, off the shore of Dahab, Egypt, this is probably the most dangerous blue hole of the lot. You must be very skilled with a good number of dives under your belt before tackling this one. It has a mouth of 80 meters and descends for 130 meters, linking up with a tunnel that carries you through a coral reef and out to open water.
From the surface, this blue hole looks like an easy dive, but looks can be deceiving… Over the past 10 years, more than 100 divers have lost their lives navigating the depths of the Blue Hole of Dahab. Due to its reputation it is colloquially referred to as the Diver’s Cemetery.
Despite the danger, you will find divers there every day, wanting to be counted among those who conquer this blue hole. I myself have dived there a few times. Twice I had the pleasure to pass the arch. It has become something like the diver’s version of climbing Mt. Everest.
Great Blue Hole
As its name implies, the Great Blue Hole is the largest and most famous blue hole in the world. It’s located off the coast of Belize on Lighthouse Reef. The blue hole, which in this case is an almost perfectly circular sink hole, descends for 124 meters. It’s 300 meters wide, and is believed to have been created somewhere between 15,000 and 150,000 years ago.
Many divers describe diving in it as a surreal experience. Once you enter the depths, you can see how the history of earth’s formation has shaped the core of the ocean. The Great Blue Hole was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and is known as a favorite of the famous French explorer Jacques Cousteau.
Blue Hole of Gozo
Over at the Maltese Islands, slightly west of the Island of Gozo, you will find two geological wonders. Not only is there a great blue hole to explore, but above it is a 328-foot archway that literally looks like a window. It is called, “Azure Window.”
Before reaching the blue hole, you need to swim through a tunnel 79 meters and then you enter two caverns. The Azure Window makes this a popular site for tourists who come to enjoy the natural phenomenon, as well as the abundance of sea life in the waters above.
Dragon Hole
Reaching a depth of more than 300 meters, this is the deepest underwater blue hole in the world today. It’s located in the South China Sea roughly 25 kilometers south of the Discovery Reef, Paracel Islands. The hole itself has been known for centuries, locals call it the Eye of the South China Sea, and as the story goes it’s where the Monkey King got his golden cudgel in Journey to the West, a classic Chinese novel published in the 16th century. But it’s depth was only determined a few years ago. Near the surface there are said to be more than 20 different species of fish and marine life, but once you go deeper the level of oxygen in the water decreases making it less accommodating for living creatures.
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever”
Jacques Cousteau
