New Caledonia · France · Wreck
Épave du Snark
A broken-up 50 m wreck on a 12 m bottom
Area photo: Jean Rerêve · CC BY-SA 4.0
A 50 m boat lying on a bottom at about 12 m south of Nouméa, dived as an easy first wreck rather than a deep one. It is quite broken up, so the interest is the scattered structure and the fish over it rather than an intact hull, and visibility here is not often good, which keeps the dive worked close in.
Where it is and how deep
22.4294° S, 166.4328° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The bottom here is at around 12 m, so the descent is short and the whole dive sits comfortably inside no-decompression limits at a depth most divers can hold without thinking about it. The wreck is quite broken up rather than one readable hull, so it is worked as a search over the remains of a 50 m boat instead of a run from one end to the other, and it is worth agreeing where the group turns before you drop.
Fish are the draw here more than the metalwork — the site listing notes plenty of them over the wreck. Visibility is not often good, and that shapes the dive far more than the depth does: keep the structure in sight as a reference, and expect to navigate by the wreckage itself rather than by anything you can pick out across the sand. The shallow depth leaves gas for a slow second pass over the parts that hold fish.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Unidentified 50 m boat
- Type
- Boat
- Length
- 50 m (164 ft)
- Cause
- Not published in the source listing
- Lies
- Broken up on the bottom at about 12 m
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good |
Season follows New Caledonia: Sep–Dec is warmest and clearest before the wet season; Jan–Mar is cyclone season, and winter water drops to about 21°C.
Know before you go
- Visibility is not often good and the wreck is broken up, so keep the structure in sight as your reference and agree a turn point before descending.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Snark wreck?+
The wreck lies on a bottom at about 12 m, shallow enough that the dive is limited by gas rather than by no-decompression time. The listing calls the site perfect for beginners, though the wreck itself is quite broken up.
Sources
- épave du snark — SSI/Scubago
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