Diving Cape Town Reefs
Diving in and around Cape Town offers one a huge range of possibilities: from interesting wrecks and kelp forests to coral gardens and deep reefs.
The Western Cape is the smallest complete floral kingdom in the world and this diversity is mirrored underwater with the unique positioning of the peninsula at the junction of two major ocean currents.
The Atlantic is cooled by the Benguela current coming up from the southern Atlantic and bringing with it water rich in micro-organisms. This accounts for the huge kelp forests found on the Atlantic as well as the fish, seals and whales which feed on the smaller animals. The False Bay is influenced by the tail end of the warmer Mozambique current which moves Southwards down the East coast of Africa. This results in slightly warmer water and different marine life - more invertebrates and colourful sponges.
The Cape has so many reefs and wrecks that we simply don't have space to describe them all here. Instead of listing the commonly dived sites, we have included some unusual sites which, in our opinion, are more interesting:
False Bay Reefs
False Bay reefs are dived mainly in winter from March to September with an water temperature of between 12°C and 18°C. The average visibility is about 6m but after some north-westerly wind the visibility can get up to 15m. We recommend diving in dry-suits or good quality 7mm, 2-piece wetsuits and bring a torch for the deeper reefs and wrecks.
Find out more about the different dive sites False Bay has to offer.
Atlantic Reefs
Atlantic Reefs are dived mainly in summer from October to February with an average water temperature of about 13°C and average visibility of about 10m. After some south-easterly wind the visibility can be up to 20m but the temperature then drops to around 10°C. We recommend diving in dry-suits or good quality 7mm, 2-piece wetsuits and bring a torch to show up the rich colours.
Find out more about the different dive sites The Atlantic has to offer.