Christmas Island · Australia · Reef · Pinnacle
Million Dollar Bommie
Shallow coral heads from 3 m with a dense garden-eel colony
Area photo: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada · CC BY 2.0
A shallow bommie system dived from 3 to 17 metres and graded beginner: coral heads to work around at a depth that leaves plenty of gas and no ceiling. Parrotfish over the coral, eels in the cracks, octopus for anyone who slows down, and a dense colony of garden eels standing out of the sand between the heads.
Where it is and how deep
No published position for this site — the map shows Christmas Island and its other sites; operators know the mooring.
The dive
This is the island's easy dive. The operator runs it from 3 to 17 metres and rates it beginner, and it is built around bommies rather than a wall: coral heads rising off the bottom with sand between them, so the dive is a loop from one to the next rather than a line along an edge. Nothing in the profile is demanding, which makes it the site for a check dive, a second dive or a long one.
The interest is at close range. Parrotfish work the coral heads, eels sit in the cracks in them, and octopus are on the operator's list for the site for anyone willing to slow down and look. Between the bommies the sand holds a dense colony of garden eels, and a shallow end at 3 metres leaves the gas to settle down and wait them out rather than swimming past.
Marine life and season
- Octopus & cuttlefish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Prime | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Christmas Island: October to December brings the clearest water; August and September bring upwellings and lower visibility; from November to April swell can roughen the north side.
Sources
- Dive Sites Christmas Island — Extra Divers Australia
- Christmas Island — Wikipedia
More dive sites in Christmas Island
Drift
A shallow drift with swirling current and elusive hammerheads
Wreck
A 1942 torpedo casualty, broken in two and dived from 5 m
Reef
Walk-in shore diving with a sheer wall and a garden-eel flat
A bottomless vertical cliff worked under a 30 m cap
Cave & cavern
A cavern that surfaces in a chamber open to the sky
Reef
Anemones and clownfish in 15 m, with whale sharks passing through
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