Fingers

Five minutes after the boat clears the break you are over the site, which keeps the ride short and the profile easy: 14 to 16 m for about 45 minutes. The reef is built of finger-like projections running out from the main body, and the dive is a matter of working along and between them rather than following one continuous edge.

The fingers themselves are where the small stuff clings on. Banded boxer shrimp, leaf fish, nudibranchs and frogfish are all regular here, and the pace of the dive suits divers who want to stop and look rather than cover ground. Between the fingers the bottom turns to sand, and those protected patches are where torpedo rays, Kuhl's rays and the occasional Jenkins ray settle.

South of the main reef sits Fishy Rock, technically a manta cleaning station although mantas are not seen on it; cleaner wrasse, damselfish, anthias and purple lyretails work it instead, and a window-hole in the rock shelters schools of striped eel catfish. Because the reef is shallow, close and forgiving, it is also where Tofo operators run the third and fourth dives of an open water course, so a training group is a common sight.