Kushimoto · Japan · Coral garden · Reef
Kushimoto Marine Park
Table coral in 6 m of water, thirty seconds' walk from shore
The shore-entry reef at Kushimoto Marine Park is the area's signature shore dive: a shallow shelf of stony coral growing at 33 degrees north, inside a Ramsar-listed wetland of 574 hectares. Water is 3 to 6 metres deep with no current, and the walk from the shop to the entry takes about thirty seconds, so it carries try-dives and first open-water dives as easily as it carries photographers.
Also known as Kaichu Koen, 串本海中公園.
Where it is and how deep
33.4670° N, 135.7330° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
Site maps published elsewhere
The dive
Entry is straight off the beach into 3 to 6 metres of water, with no current running across the shelf. The ground close in is stony coral rather than bare sand: plate-forming Acropora, mound corals and the tropical fish that hang over them. The whole site sits inside snorkelling depth, which is why local shops use it for try-dives as readily as for certified divers.
Swim away from the beach and the ground opens into the table coral Kushimoto is known for — a colony of Acropora hyacinthus that local operators describe as the largest in Kushimoto and the largest stand of its kind on Honshu. With a maximum depth of around six metres, the dive is limited by air and by interest rather than by no-decompression time, which is why shops use it for training and for long, slow photography dives.
Background
Kushimoto was designated Japan's first marine park within a national park in July 1970. The observation tower followed in January 1971 and the Marine Park Center aquarium opened on 21 October 1971. The coral community itself — 574 hectares of it, inside Yoshino-Kumano National Park — was listed as a protected wetland under the Ramsar Convention in 2005. In 2018 the Kuroshio, the warm current that normally shelters the reef, meandered away from the coast and let cold water in, destroying most of the coral populations.
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Kushimoto: Jul–Oct is warmest with the widest range of tropical strays; winter drops to 16°C but gives the clearest water on the reef.
Photos from Kushimoto Marine Park
harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan · CC BY-SA 2.0
harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan · CC BY-SA 2.0
harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan · CC BY-SA 2.0
Questions divers ask
How deep is the dive at Kushimoto Marine Park?+
Shallow: 3 to 6 metres across the shelf, with the largest table coral colony out from the beach. There is no current, so the limit on the dive is air rather than depth.
Can beginners dive Kushimoto Marine Park?+
Yes. Local shops run try-dives and beginner dives here — the entry is a thirty-second walk from the shop, the water is no more than about six metres deep and there is no current.
Sources
- Kushimoto Diving Park — point map — Kushimoto Diving Park
- Akasyachi Diving Service — dive point map — Akasyachi Diving Service
- Kushimoto (Wikivoyage) — Wikivoyage
- Kushimoto, Wakayama — Wikipedia
- 串本海中公園 (Kushimoto Marine Park) — Wikipedia (Japanese)
- Ramsar sites in Japan — Wikipedia
Photo credits
- Shallow stony coral shelf on a rocky bottom in clear green water by harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- A school of dark reef fish swimming over the shallow reef by harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Close-up of a spotted pufferfish facing the camera over the reef by harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Magenta soft coral branch in the foreground with reef fish hazy in the background by harum.koh from Kobe city, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Kushimoto
Muck & macro
The original longfin grouper reef, open only in late autumn
Pinnacle
A seamount 2 km offshore, dived at slack water for pelagics
Reef
A tropical longfin grouper resident here for over a decade
Reef
Hand-fed moorish idol schools that swim up to divers
Similar dives elsewhere
Pastel coral garden at 11 m with a high turtle hit rate
Coral garden
Gakkoshita
Miyakejima · Japan
Famous table coral colonies above a drop-off 100 m out
Coral shelves to 18 m with green turtles as the constant
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Coral colonies on white sand, boat access, down to 25 m