Lake Malawi · Malawi · Freshwater · Sand slope
Otter Point
Home water of the Malawi butterfly cichlid
Photo: Hans Hillewaert · CC BY-SA 4.0
Otter Point is a rocky point on the Cape Maclear shore, where the rock of the shallows runs down to a rock-sand transition at 15 m and the bottom sits a metre below that. Rock, sand and the broken ground between them each hold different cichlids, among them the Malawi butterfly cichlid, known only from the southern portion of the lake.
Where it is and how deep
14.0395° S, 34.8226° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive works a slope rather than a route. Rock stacks down from the point and gives out at a rock-sand transition around 15 m, with the bottom only a metre below that, so the whole profile stays in shallow water and you can spend most of a tank on one stretch of ground. Get neutral over the rock, keep your fins off it, and let the fish settle back around you.
The interest is in the boundary. Male Malawi butterfly cichlids, Aulonocara jacobfreibergi, hold the intermediate zone where the rocky shore breaks up into sand with scattered rocks, and the species is known only from the southern portion of the lake, in populations at Cape Maclear, Otter Point, Mumbo and Domwe. Work slowly along that line, then finish back up in the shallows, where a long, unhurried ascent costs you nothing.
Marine life and season
- Freshwater fish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Lake Malawi: May to October is the dry, settled stretch; the rains run from November to April and are heaviest from December to March.
Know before you go
- The point is exposed to wind and wave action, so check the surface state before you commit: chop rather than depth is what makes an entry here awkward.
Dive videos
Cape Maclear, National park - Otter Point - The Lake Malawi Experience #5 · The Lake Malawi Experience on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Otter Point?+
The bottom is at 16 m and the rock gives way to sand at about 15 m, so it is a shallow dive with no reason to go deeper.
What lives at Otter Point?+
Cichlids, sorted by the ground they sit on. The Malawi butterfly cichlid, Aulonocara jacobfreibergi, holds the broken zone where rock meets sand, and it is found only in the southern portion of the lake.
Sources
- The underwater photic environment of Cape Maclear, Lake Malawi — Journal of Experimental Biology
- Aulonocara jacobfreibergi (Malawi Butterfly) — SeriouslyFish
- West Thumbi/Otter Point OSM node — OpenStreetMap
Photo credits
- Rocky, tree-covered point at Otter Point running down into the water of Lake Malawi by Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
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