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Calm morning water over a shallow fringing reef seen through palm fronds, with small forested islets and Sulawesi's hills beyond — Togian Islands

Togian Islands · Indonesia · Reef

Hong Kong

Huge schools of yellow snapper over a southern slope

Area photo: Arian Zwegers · CC BY 2.0

Hong Kong is a sloping reef on the south side of the island, and it is named for its abundance of fish rather than for anything on the bottom: the huge schools of yellow snapper that hold over the slope are the reason boats come here. The published maximum is 24 m, so the whole site fits inside a single-tank profile.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Hong Kong: typical dive to 24 m (to 80 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit24 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

0.2026° S, 121.6463° EPublished position for this site.

The dive

The site is a slope rather than a wall or a pinnacle, running down the southern side of the island, so the dive is a straightforward traverse along the contour. The deepest published point is 24 m, and the reef rises steadily from there, which lets you take the bottom of the profile first and work up the slope as the tank empties rather than sawtoothing across it.

Fish do the work here rather than terrain. The site takes its name from the sheer abundance on it, and the huge schools of yellow snapper over the reef are what divers come for: from a few metres off the slope they read as one moving mass rather than as individual fish. Beyond that abundance and the 24 m maximum, nothing about the site is published, so how the slope is worked on the day is the guide's call.

Marine life and season

  • Reef fish swarms
Month-by-month season rating for Hong Kong
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
FairFairGoodPrimePrimePrimePrimePrimeGoodGoodFairFair

Season follows Togian Islands: Mar–Sep is driest and calmest; the wet season from November to February brings rain and rougher inter-island crossings.

Questions divers ask

How deep is the Hong Kong dive site?+

The published maximum depth is 24 metres, and the reef slopes up from there, so the dive is normally run as a single descent to the deep end followed by a gradual ascent along the slope.

Sources

  1. Hong Kong dive site, Togian Islands — Scubago

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