Our first dive on the East Coast of Okinawa, Japan—what an incredible time! The dive path drops off a steep cliff and into a cave, which we belly-crawled up and out to a gorgeous safety stop above a reef. The reef was right at 6 metres, so our stop was simply a reef exploration with a view over the drop-point. As with our other Okinawa dive, I strongly suggest a thick wetsuit despite the surface temperature: the temperature drops markedly at the thermocline!

To reach this site, we chartered a dive boat with Jack Dive Center Okinawa, with our excellent guides being Makoto Konno and Teruyuki Kawabe.

After the dive, we talked with our guide about the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) starfish problem: there were a surprising number of these predators among the coral.

image gallery

Marine life in this article: crown-of-thorns starfishClarke's anemonefishroyal angelfishvagabond butterflyfishblack-backed butterflyfishwhitemargin unicornfishorange-spine unicornfishblue-lined surgeonfishbrown surgeonfishbluespine unicornfishsaddle butterflyfishsunset wrasseorange clownfish.

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