Diving on Mauritius

The Mauritius Scuba Diving Association regulates the island's dive centers, which must all be run by qualified, experienced dive masters, who have been trained to International standards.
Mauritius regulations require that visitors dive accompanied by an instructor and escorted by a boat. All centers are managed by CMAS or PADI international diving instructors who can give courses from beginners up to experts and additionally organise snorkeling excursions.

Dive sites of Mauritius:
Attractive dive sites can be found all around the island, (not just exclusively behind the coral reefs). The diving conditions vary around the island, for example the east coast is colder than the west both on land and in the water.
The east coast however has some of the best dives sites of the island. The islands of the North offer particularly attractive diving and surprisingly, are rarely visited by the clubs due to their distant location.
The sea temperature is generally pleasant throughout the year ranging from 28c in summer to 23/24c in winter. Strong anticyclones in winter may occasionally cause the sea temperature to fall by 2 or 3c but with the exception of the cyclonic period (January - February) and during July and August for the east coast, good diving conditions exist all year round. The North coast offers particularly attractive diving such as the:
Whale Rock which is famous for the huge rocks, sea fan, huge stone corals, sometimes hammerhead sharks and other different species of fish .
Flat Island, which is renowned for its 'Shark pit' shark dive.
The Silver star wreck where an old fishing boat sank in 1990.
Grand Bay and Pereybere offer about 6 diving sites along the coast ranging in depth from 11-18m. You can see a large variety of coloured fish and corals of all sorts in the clear water. The place names are: Grand Bay Aquarium, Coral Head, Island Reef, Pereybere Aquarium and Merville Patche.

The East coast is famous for its beautiful beaches and magnificent lagoons bordering the coasts and is scattered with many channels that allow easy access to the open sea.
There is one nice dive into the current of the Belle Mare lagoon (12-30m). There are sharks, rays, barracuda, tuna fish and kingfish.

The South East Coast allows divers to swim in a decor made up of caves, canyons, arches, tunnels and peaks. The interesting diving sites are:
Roche Zozo
Colorado
The remnants of the historical wreckage of the Sirius, which was sunk in 1810 during the naval battle of Grand Port between the British and French.

The West Coast offers:

An impressive underwater cave known as "Cathedrale" which starts as an underwater cliff just close to Flic en Flac and offers a spectacular beauty due to the topography of the place (caves, arches and cavities). The cave is populated by a variety of fish and various crustaceans.
Another site close to Flic en Flac is Rempart Serpent; this site has a large concentration of several species of morays, Lionfish, stone fishes. An excellent place to observe dolphins is near Tamarin Bay in the southwest, where a large group of dolphins can be found.