Kushimoto · Japan · Reef
Sumisaki
Hand-fed moorish idol schools that swim up to divers
Area photo: Yudai_photography · CC BY 4.0
A seabed of scattered rocky outcrops with an average depth around 20 metres, no current, and fish that come to divers rather than the other way round. The main outcrop carries hand-fed schools of moorish idols and other reef fish, and deeper on the site a large basin sponge marks the ground where guides look for the rarer animals that stray onto this coast.
Also known as Sumizaki, 住崎.
Where it is and how deep
33.4510° N, 135.7509° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The site is a stretch of seabed averaging around 20 metres with several small rocky outcrops standing off it, and the dive is worked outcrop by outcrop rather than as a route. The main one is where the fish are: schools of moorish idols and other reef fish that have been hand-fed and now come in close to divers, with sweetlips and eels holding around the rock through the year.
The largest outcrop also carries the summer-to-winter schools — yellowfin goatfish and bluestripe snapper massing over it in numbers. Deeper on the site there is a large basin sponge, and that end of the dive is where guides look for the rarer animals that turn up on this coast. Depth runs 10 to 25 metres and there is no current, so it is a slow, close-focus dive rather than a covering-ground one.
Sumisaki doubles as Kushimoto's event point through the year: squid egg-laying beds are set out in April, a carp-streamer display goes up in May, Tanabata bamboo in July and a Christmas tree in December. If you are diving here on those dates the installation is part of the dive, and the April beds are set for the bigfin reef squid that spawn on the site.
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
- Squid
| 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.
Dive videos
ビデオログ住崎 · PapamonDiving on YouTube
2001 10 28 和歌山 串本 住崎 · dvdiverjp i on YouTube
Sources
- Coral Queen — dive point introduction — Coral Queen (Kushimoto Diving Service)
- Akasyachi Diving Service — dive point map — Akasyachi Diving Service
- Orange House — diving points — Orange House
- 住崎 (OpenStreetMap) — OpenStreetMap contributors
In The Logbook
- When does coral spawn? The moon's calendarBig animals · 10 min read
More dive sites in Kushimoto
Muck & macro
The original longfin grouper reef, open only in late autumn
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A seamount 2 km offshore, dived at slack water for pelagics
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A tropical longfin grouper resident here for over a decade
Table coral in 6 m of water, thirty seconds' walk from shore
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