Réunion · France · Reef · Wall
Le Sec Jaune
Shallow plateau with dense fish and varied coral
Area photo: Cynomana · CC BY-SA 4.0
Le Sec Jaune is a coral plateau off Saint-Leu, on Réunion's west coast, sitting above a drop-off that runs down to 20 metres. PADI's guide describes an abundance of fish over the plateau and a wide variety of corals on it, and lists sharks, whales, dolphins and turtles among what passes through. The easy depth makes it a straightforward dive on the same coast as the deep sites.
Where it is and how deep
21.2059° S, 55.2799° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The plateau is the dive. It is a coral shelf overlooking a drop-off that runs down to 20 metres, so the profile is simple: drop onto the top, work the plateau, and use the edge where the ground falls away as the line to follow. PADI's description is of abundance rather than of any single feature, with fish over the plateau in numbers and a wide variety of corals covering it.
That makes it a dive spent looking down and in close rather than out into the blue, though the sightings logged for the site also include sharks, whales, dolphins and turtles. With the deepest ground at 20 metres there is no pressure on bottom time, which leaves room to cover the plateau properly and finish shallow over the coral instead of cutting the dive short at the drop-off.
Marine life and season
- Whales
- Dolphins
- Sea turtles
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Réunion: May–Oct is the dry season with the calmest water and humpbacks Jul–Oct; Jan–Mar is cyclone season.
Dive videos
Plongée sur le Sec Jaune, Reunion Plongee Saint Leu · Scubananas Réunion Plongée on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Le Sec Jaune?+
The drop-off below the plateau runs down to 20 metres, and the coral shelf itself sits above that. It is a shallow dive by Réunion standards and easy to plan well inside no-decompression limits.
Sources
- Le Sec Jaune dive site — PADI
More dive sites in Réunion
Wreck
A 1999 scuttling on her port side, holds full of soldierfish
Cave & cavern
A ten-metre arch cresting at 20 m, its feet on the bottom at 42 m
A coral flat to 20 m, then a wall from 20 down to 40 m
Reef
A shore entry in the marine reserve, 4 m to a small drop-off
Cave & cavern
A collapsed reef cavern with easy galleries at 3 to 17 m
Pinnacle
Two basalt organ pipes 25 m tall, one pierced by a cave
Wall
Black sand to scree at 40 m, and a shy grouper at 50 m
A stepped wall dropping in two stages from 40 m to 70 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Coral drop-offs at 21 m under a ceiling of fusiliers
Walk-in shore diving with a sheer wall and a garden-eel flat
Hard coral gardens from 6 m to a 20 m drop-off
Red-buoy entries, a 6 m training plateau and a 20 m wall