Mauritius · Mauritius · Artificial reef
Djabeda
A 44 m fishing boat on sand at 30 m by Coin de Mire
Photo: otterboris · CC BY 3.0
A Japanese fishing boat of roughly 44 m lying on sand at 30 m beside Ile Coin de Mire, off the north coast. The hull has grown in enough to work as a reef: soft corals on the structure, schooling fish and kingfish over it, and morays, triggerfish and leaf fish tucked into it. It is a deep dive on a single level, reached by boat from the north-coast centres.
Where it is and how deep
19.9458° S, 57.6205° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The wreck lies on a sandy bottom at 30 m immediately off Ile Coin de Mire, the island off the northern end of Mauritius. She measures about 44 m long, 10 m high and 5 m wide, so the structure gives you a defined shape to follow at depth rather than a scattered debris field, and the sand around her sets the bottom of the profile at a single level.
The site is a busy one. Soft corals have taken the structure, schools of fish hold over it with kingfish moving through, and the hull itself is where the smaller things are: moray eels, triggerfish, stonefish, lionfish, leaf fish and nudibranchs. That mix rewards a slow pass close to the plating rather than a lap of the outline, though at 30 m the bottom time to do both is short.
Boats come out of the north of the island, where the centres have easy access to Coin de Mire and the outer islands. No published figures exist for visibility or current on this site specifically, so take the day's conditions from the briefing, and treat the 30 m sand floor as the whole of the profile - no source describes a shallower part of the hull to move up onto if the dive runs long. Nothing is published about when she sank or why, so the guide's briefing is the only history you will get.
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
- Trevally & jacks
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Good |
Season follows Mauritius: Cyclone season (Jan-Mar) can disrupt trips and cloud visibility; the trade-wind months of Apr-Nov give steadier, clearer conditions.
Know before you go
- The whole dive is at 30 m on sand with no shallower structure described, so no-decompression time is the limit - plan gas and turn time before you leave the boat.
- Stonefish and lionfish are both on the wreck; keep hands off the structure and watch where you settle when you stop to look at something small.
Photos from Djabeda
otterboris · CC BY 3.0
otterboris · CC BY 3.0
otterboris · CC BY 3.0
Dive videos
Djabeda Wreck Dive, Mauritius · Kaes de Jong on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Djabeda wreck?+
She lies on sand at 30 m immediately beside Ile Coin de Mire, and no shallower section of the hull is described in any source, so plan it as a single deep level; Advanced-level certification is the honest requirement.
What can you see on the Djabeda?+
Soft corals on the structure, schooling fish and kingfish over it, and moray eels, triggerfish, stonefish, lionfish, leaf fish and nudibranchs in and around the hull.
Sources
- Djabeda dive site — PADI
- Just Diving in Mauritius — PADI
Photo credits
- Ile Coin de Mire rising from the sea off Mauritius's north coast, seen from a boat on the water. by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- A swimmer in clear turquoise water beside a sailing boat under the cliffs of Ile Coin de Mire. by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Steep basalt cliffs of Ile Coin de Mire dropping straight into deep blue water. by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Close view of the layered volcanic rock face of Ile Coin de Mire above the water. by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Mauritius
Reef
Shallow coral and a multitude of small reef fish
Wall
Steep walls and rock formations at about 34 m
Drift
A drift run deep to 26 m or shallow to 20 m
Cave & cavern
A guided cavern in the reef off Flic en Flac
Wreck
A fishing boat sunk for diving at 35 m, a reef since the 1980s
Wreck
A wreck sunk as an artificial reef at 43 m, rarely dived
Reef
A small rock outcrop on sand, 16 m at its deepest
Reef
The shallow part of L'Eveille, 5 to 19 m
Similar dives elsewhere
A scuttled trawler at 28.5 m off Nosy Sakatia
A small barge on black sand, thick with fish
Ruined jetty that serves as a nursery for baby fish
An artificial reef on the tideless side of Zeeland