Pacific Islands · Northern Mariana Islands
Rota
Shafts of sunlight falling into the Rota Hole cave.
Rota is the southernmost island of the Northern Marianas, sparsely populated and surrounded by exceptionally clear water. Every dive is a boat dive, from harbours on the east and west sides, onto wrecks, drop-offs, caves and coral gardens. The draw is Rota Hole, a cave lit by shafts of sunlight; the Shoun Maru, a Japanese freighter sunk in 1944, lies upright in Sasanaya Bay. Most dives run from 3 m in the coral shallows to about 35 m on the walls.
About diving in Rota
Every dive on Rota starts from a boat; there are no shore entries. Boats work from harbours on both the east and west sides of the island, and the day's sites are chosen on guests' requests and the sea conditions. The east coast can be rough, especially in the trade wind season, and Harnom Drop-off, where currents from the Philippine Sea and the Pacific meet, needs good weather to reach at all. Sasanaya Bay, which holds the island's two wrecks, is a marine sanctuary.
The island's honeycombed base extends under the sea as caves, tunnels and crevices, and the coast falls away in drop-offs and overhangs. Between them lie hard coral gardens and wide sand floors, and the seabed around both wrecks is alive with garden eels. Visibility is the constant: a bad day is 30 m. Green and hawksbill turtles graze algae on the upper reef flat, and white-tip sharks and spadefish hover over the Shoun Maru.
Rota suits divers with settled buoyancy who come for caves, walls and clear water. Several of the caves and drop-offs require buoyancy control, and both wrecks, Pona Point and Harnom can run very strong currents, so divers still working on their trim will find fewer of the signature sites open to them. The rough east coast is the least known part of the island: much of its underwater world has yet to be explored.
Best time to dive Rota
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good |
Rota Hole is at its best from March to September for the light beams; the Shoun Maru is dived year-round.
Best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September
Dive types & marine life
A couple of whitetip reef sharks live in Pearlman Tunnel. Harnom is the most reliable site for big fish: bigeye trevally, rainbow runners, barracuda, tuna and giant Napoleon wrasse. Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Sasanaya Bay are a matter of luck.
- Cave & cavern
- Wreck
- Wall
- Drift
- Coral garden
- Sea turtles
- Reef sharks
- Dolphins
- Trevally & jacks
- Barracuda
- Tuna
- Napoleon wrasse
Best dive sites in Rota
- 1
Rota Hole
Cave to 18 m lit by shifting pillars of light, with soldierfish and sweepers inside.
- 2
Shoun Maru
Japanese freighter over 100 m long, sunk in 1944, with currents that can be very strong.
- 3
Harnom Drop-off
Overhanging drop-off to 40 m, the best site on the island for big fish.
- 4
Senhanom Drop-off
Wall plunging from a 12 m reef top to beyond 50 m.
- 5
Pearlman Tunnel
Cave in the drop-off, to 35 m, home to a couple of whitetip reef sharks.
- 6
Coral Garden
Hard coral landscape running from 3 m shallows down to sand at 25 m.
- 7
Jerry's Reef
Sandy reef known for its colony of garden eels.
Site guides
Cave & cavern
A tunnel that climbs from the drop-off to open water near the surface
Cave & cavern
Shafts of sunlight beaming down into a cave
Wreck
A former China river ship seized in a smuggling bust and sunk for divers
Wreck
A 122 m (400 ft) freighter often visible end to end from the surface
How to get to Rota
Rota International Airport is about 30 minutes by air from Guam and Saipan, and Star Marianas Air is the only airline flying to the island. Dive boats leave from the East and West harbours.
Dive videos
Scuba Diving Rota | Northern Mariana Islands | Liquid Soul Industries · LiquidSoulIndustries on YouTube
[4K, Sony A7SII] Underwater | Rota Island, The Blue and White · Miru Kim | INDIE OCEAN on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Can Rota be dived from the shore?+
No. Every dive site on Rota is reached by boat, from harbours on the east and west sides of the island.
When is the best time to dive Rota Hole?+
March to September. Light beams enter the cave from mid-February to late October and are at their strongest from April to September.
Can the Shoun Maru be dived all year?+
Yes, though currents on the wreck can be intense during spring tides, and it reaches 33 m.
How do divers get to Rota?+
Star Marianas Air flies small seven-seat aircraft to Rota International Airport three times a day from Saipan, and also from Guam; either hop takes about 30 minutes.
Sources
- Dive Site | Blue Palms — Blue Palms Dive Service
- Access, Flight | Blue Palms — Blue Palms Dive Service
- Diving into the CNMI - Rota and Saipan — Outdoor Japan Magazine
- What’s RUBIN — Rota Scuba Center Rubin
- Rota, Northern Mariana Islands — Wikipedia
Embed
Run a dive centre, club or blog? Embed this map of 2 dive sites near Rota on your own page.
Similar destinations
A 38 m chimney built by freshwater springs venting inside the lagoon
Forty-metre visibility over lava caves and canyons, straight off the reef
Pacific Islands
Majuro & Mili
Marshall Islands
Ride a channel that flushes a forty-kilometre lagoon on the tide
Hooked onto the reef at Blue Corner as schools and grey reef sharks pour past