SSI - Your choice for certification

Shoaab Samaday, also known as Dolphin House, is a protected area by the Egyptian environment authorities. The crescent formation of the reef and shallow water has, over the time, attracted bottlenose dolphins to use it as a rest location. This dive is perfect for entry level divers and snorkelers alike.

The Great Blue Hole sits just off Lighthouse Reef in Belize and is one of the most famous marine sinkholes in the world. It is 407 feet deep, with many stalactites to be seen. This is an advanced dive due to the depth and seemingly bottomless hole. It is easy to get too deep too fast, so watch your gauges!

One of the most popular dives in Cozumel. You will find a steep dropoff, with potentially strong currents and frequent eagle ray sightings. The water is beautiful with 30m or better visibility. There are big barrel sponges all along the wall. This is a more advanced dive site.

This site is one of the most popular dive sites on Madeira Island, located around 100 meters offshore. The sea bed consists of a sandy bottom where huge rock formations lie creating the perfect environment for the famous Dusky grouper.

Very easy dive made by different pinnacles at a shallow depth. The pinnacles are formed by different species of hard corals with soft corals and anemones throughout. Following these formations, you can find a coral drop off down to 25 meters.

Mathesons Bay is a sheltered bay that is perfect for diving! Divers can easily enter and exit the water via the beach or over the rock platform if the tide is right.

This dive site starts as a wall dive and leads into the channel, here you can enter the channel to enjoy a deeper dive or stay on the drop off point of the channel where you can enjoy all the fish life in the current.

Silfra is a rift formed in the divergent tectonic boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates and is located in Iceland. It’s the only place in the world where you can dive between two tectonic plates.

Ped is a beautiful dive site on the north side of Nusa Penida. Ped features a sloping reef starting at 5m, descending all the way to 40m and beyond. Currents range from mild to strong.

On her maiden voyage the Zeonbia ferry sunk near the Larnaca port in 1980. She sits at 42m on her side and starts at 17m. At 172m long it is a two dive wreck. As she lays 1.5km from shore this is a boat dive. The sea conditions are usually quite calm.

With females able to grow up to 7 meters long, the great white shark is the largest predatory fish on earth. It owes its name to its light, almost white, belly color, making it almost invisible to prey looking up from the seafloor. It’s body is similar in construction to a torpedo, making them very good, fast swimmers. In fact, they can reach speeds of up to 25 km/h and, like whales, have the ability to launch their entire body out of the water. Not many species prey on great whites, but if it is attacked, it can rolls its eyes inward for protection. Their eyes can absorb weak light, allowing them to see better in twilight than a cat.

With fins as wide as wings, manta rays soar along ocean currents like birds in flight, making them one of the most elegant animals of the sea. The name ‘manta’ comes from the Spanish word blanket and with a wingspan of up to nine meters, it’s easy to see how they can look like a blanket floating in the sea. Scuba diving with mantas is one of the most amazing experiences any diver can have underwater.

Pygmy seahorses are not only the smallest and cutest of the seahorses, but they are the best at blending in with their environment. You really have to hunt for these masters of disguise as pygmies are some of the smallest seahorse species in the world, with adults averaging only 2 centimeters in length! Every pygmy not only imitates the exact color of the sea fan it is living on, but its body is also covered in calcium-rich bumps called tubercles that mimic the fan’s polyps, completely camouflaging the pygmy. These tiny seahorses are truly an amazing sight to see.

The ocean sunfish, commonly known as the Mola mola, are one of the most extraordinary fish found in the ocean. Due to their round, flattened form they are reminiscent of a millstone, called mola in Latin. Ocean sunfish are found in both temperate and tropical regions around the world. They are frequently seen near the surface, an amazing site to witness as they bask in the sun to raise their body temperature after deep ocean dives, sometimes as deep as 600 meters!

Lionfish are native to Indo-Pacific waters and are usually found hiding under ledges or in shallow caves at depths between 2 and 60 meters. They are diurnal, meanings they hunt both during the day and at night but often stay hidden until sunset to avoid predators. Unfortunately, lionfish have become an invasive species in the western Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. In fact, despite their menacing beauty, lionfish have become a huge problem in the Caribbean as their population has spread tremendously in just a single decade. In fact, the Science Channel has claimed they are “one of the most aggressively invasive species on the planet.” These flashy predators are considered fairly aggressive and harmful to humans so take caution when diving with lionfish and keep a safe distance.

The puffer fish is named after its ability to inflate itself like a ball in danger or stress. They pump water into a sac-like enlargement of their stomach, causing them to deform into a ball. This change in volume makes it almost impossible for predatory fish to swallow the puffer fish and it can even suffocate them. If this stress reaction is caused willfully by divers, puffer fish can sometimes inadvertently suck in breathing gas from divers, which leads to them being buoyant and floating helplessly on the surface. This usually ends fatally for the animal. They are rarely eaten by predatory fish, but dolphins have been observed to get intoxicated on these animals by chewing lightly on them, which causes the puffer fish to release small doses of the strong neurotoxin tetrodotoxin. This poison is fatal to humans and no antidote is known; ironically, however, in Japan puffer fish is considered a delicacy called fugu. However, people’s curiosity about this questionable delicacy leads to accidents every year.

Who has never been overjoyed to see a turtle while snorkeling or diving? These friendly-looking, ancient reptiles are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical areas. Sea turtles can live for up to 100 years and are believed to have been living here on earth for millions of years. Many facts about them are astonishing but probably the most is the fact that female turtles return to the exact beach where they were born, a journey sometimes covering thousands of kilometers, to lay their eggs in shallow nests they dig in the sand with their flippers. This is an incredible achievement and an awe-inspiring thing to watch. Most locations where you can dive with sea turtles are also where you can sneak a peek at this miraculous egg-laying practice that’s as old as time itself.