| I often get questions about scuba diving in Malta | | | | cautios. |
| from friends and colleagues and this article is an | | | | Wrecks If you like wrecks and don't like to have too |
| effort to provide an overview of Maltese diving. I will | | | | much fish disturbing the view you will be in heaven. |
| write about some of the areas covered in more | | | | Malta has several really good wrecks and most of |
| detail in separate articles. Let me start off with the | | | | them are rather accessible. Some of the wrecks are |
| most common misconceptions: Malta does not have | | | | from WW2 and even WW1: |
| any coral reefs and it is not tropical diving at all. While | | | | - HMS Maori |
| the water may be warm enough in summer, the | | | | - X Lighter |
| temperature drops down to 12 degrees in the winter | | | | - Blenheim Bomber |
| making coral growth impossible. This also means that | | | | - Bristol Beaufighter |
| the pictures distributed by various dive centres and | | | | - Margurite (or Odile as it is also called) |
| tourism authorities of happy divers in shorties is only | | | | - HMS Southwold |
| partly true - I usually dive in a dry suit large parts of | | | | - Schnellboot S31 |
| the year. | | | | - Hellespont |
| So, how can you summarize Maltese diving then? I | | | | - Eddy |
| think it is relatively simple - the main characters are: | | | | - HMS Sant Angelo |
| - Good visibility | | | | - Le Polynesien |
| - Interesting underwater topography (including | | | | There are of course many more but this a selection |
| caverns) | | | | of the most famous. In addition to this, new ones |
| - Wrecks | | | | are being scuttled as attractions for divers. Here we |
| If this is what you are after you will not be | | | | have: |
| disappointed. Let me also point out that Malta is | | | | - Rozi |
| made up of a couple of islands with Malta, Gozo and | | | | - Um el Faroud |
| Comino being the largest ones. With the exemption | | | | - 10 |
| of a handful of people on Comino, only Malta and | | | | - St Michael |
| Gozo are inhabited. Malta is the most hectic island | | | | - P29 Boltenhagen |
| with the best wrecks and Gozo has more dramatic | | | | - Xlendi |
| scenery and often better visibility. | | | | - Karwela |
| Visibility | | | | - Comino Land |
| Visibility is often very good or even excellent. In | | | | - Imperial Eagle |
| some areas anything below 20 meters can be | | | | Many of these dives are rather deep or perhaps I |
| considered bad. In the harbours it is of course less | | | | should say that few are shallow enough for |
| good and I would say that around 10 meters is | | | | beginners. Out of these I would say that only HMS |
| rather normal on wrecks like HMS Maori and X | | | | Maori and X Lighter are suitable for Open Water |
| Lighter. Visibility changes throughout the year and the | | | | divers. Some of the wrecks requires good experience |
| best visibility is found in autumn and winter. Summer | | | | and training - for example Imperial Eagle which has a |
| is the worst time for visibility (and other aspects | | | | max depth of 41 metres. Some dives are technical |
| such as crowds, marine life, heat etc). | | | | dives (Le Polynesien, HMS Southwold for example). |
| Underwater topography | | | | Marine life Don't come to Malta if your main interest |
| I didn't quite appreciate this factor until I dived in | | | | is fish. There are much better destinations for fish |
| Malta but nowadays I think it is very important. What | | | | spotting (Red Sea, Thailand etc) but that said, the |
| I am referring to is simply how a site looks and if | | | | marine life here is actually much better than one |
| there are any special features such as drop offs, | | | | could expect. The number of species is not very |
| boulders, caverns etc. There are many steep drop | | | | impressive but there are some really interesting |
| offs in Malta and Gozo (Zurrieq, Dwejra, Blue Hole, | | | | things to be seen. |
| Inland Sea to mention a few) and there are also | | | | - John Dory |
| plenty of caverns and a few caves. Many people | | | | - Bonitos |
| have an image of Malta as a good cave diving | | | | - Flying Gurnard |
| destination but I would disagree with this. Few caves | | | | In addition to this, I have seen both Dolphins and |
| are deep enough to be considered anything but a | | | | Eagle Rays while diving here and friends of mine have |
| cavern. That said - they still make very pretty dives. | | | | seen Sunfish a few times. There is also a healthy |
| Some interesting caverns are Anchor Bay, Ghar Lapsi, | | | | growth of sponges and soft corals. One of my |
| Blue Hole, Cathedral Cave and Billinghurst Cave. I | | | | favourites is the Neptunes Lace which can be found |
| recommend a Cavern Diver course to safely explore | | | | in abundance in the caverns. |
| these - people have dies in these caverns so be very | | | | |