White Bank

The bank is a field of submerged granitic rock 15 to 20 minutes east of Praslin, and what separates it from bare stone is the growth on it: sponges and corals grip the boulders, and that is where the fish sit. The average depth is 15 to 22 m, so the whole dive runs at a fairly constant level rather than dropping through zones, and the rock itself is the navigation.

Whitetip sharks are the sighting that gets logged most here, and hawksbill turtles turn up on the same rock. Around them are schools of yellowfin soldierfish, angelfish and groupers, with spiny lobster back in the cracks, and eagle rays and octopus both sit high on the site's sighting log. That is the sort of list that rewards a slow lap of the granite rather than a long swim, and with no deeper ground to chase the dive ends on the rock it started on.