Scuba diving and underwater photography go hand in hand whether you are in the beautiful Cayman Islands, Hawaiian Islands, the Red Sea or the coast of California. Come explore shipwrecks such as the majestic USS Kittiwake in Grand Cayman or the Carthaginian II in Maui, Hawaii along with magnificent coral reefs from around the world.

The coral reefs in Bali on Menjangan Island hosts some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world. Menjangan Island has been a marine preserve and protected by the Balinese government for a number of years. The island is also fairly isolated in that once you arrive at the airport you have to travel 4 to 6 hours by car to get to the resorts close to the island. This means their are few divers that explore this marvelous site that is rich with all types of marine species and you can also on special occasions come across large pelagic species such as the whale shark. Menjangan Island, in the northwest of Bali, is where diving first really started on the island back in about 1978, under the sponsorship of the Indonesian Navy, when it arranged a get-together of the country’s main diving clubs including Possi, Ganesha, Nusantara & Triskati. That lead to Menjangan Island establishing itself as the premier dive location in Bali and many of the attendees went on to become the pioneers of commercial dive operations across Indonesia. About a year later the Liberty wreck was explored for the first time since it had slipped down the slope at Tulamben in March 1963 and Menjangan Island was soon relegated to the background of Bali diving. Menjangan Island is part of the 19,000 hectare West Bali, Bali Barat, National Park that was first established in 1982. However, the island was made a game reserve by the Balinese Council of Kings in 1950 and has been fairly well protected ever since. Both the relative difficulty of getting to the Menjangan Island from the normal tourist spots on Bali plus the fact that the site has been relatively protected since 1950 has resulted in a coral reef that is both vibrant and flourishing around the island. The Liberty wreck in Tulamben is also still a favorite dive site, but has a very high amount of diver traffic and the site has predictably shown quite a bit of wear and tear. You can reach the dive sites via boats off the coast of Pemuteran Bay in front of the dive resorts or a boat from Banyuwedang Bay or perhaps the boat service run by the parks service. If you are staying at one of the resorts around Pemuteran Bay, taking the boat in front of your resort is the way to go. The boat trip is about 30 to 40 minutes and the seas are usually fairly flat as the area around Menjangan Island is fairly well protected. Diving is quite good year round and even in the rainy winter season the visibility is normally quite clear. The island is not big and does not have any fresh water and does not have much runoff that will impact visibility. There can be some current on various sites around the island so you may dive some of the sites as drift dives. However, do not worry, as the current is typically not too strong. Just remember to listen to the instructions of your dive master. Enjoy the gallery, the pool is open...

Scuba Diving in Grand Cayman is something special. The magnificent walls, the USS Kittiwake, spectacular corals on the north side, and upper west side, easy access and warm water makes this a marvelous place for scuba diving. Whether you are an aggressive technical diver or a recreational diver, there is something for you in Grand Cayman. The variety of marine species and topography provides every type of diver with what they want. With boat rides of 10 to 30 minutes to the dive site you can become easily spoiled to the warm, friendly and inviting waters of this Caribbean paradise. See my blog http://blog.stevenwsmeltzer.com for information on specific dive sites and other information.

Diving amongst the giant kelp forests makes quite a unique dive especially for an underwater photographer. In Southern California the visibility can be challenging but the results still amazing. There are also a number of shipwrecks in the San Diego area and a wide variety of marine life from Santa Barbara to San Diego.