South African Humpback Whale Party

The No. 1 spot on my list, however, never changes — my ultimate underwater experience will always be a face-to-face encounter with nature’s largest mammal, the whale.

Featured in the BBC series Nature’s Great Events as well as The Blue Planet, the sardine run is comparable to the Serengeti’s wildebeest migration in terms of sheer biomass, and attracts divers from all over the world.

If South Africa is famous for one thing among divers, it’s the sardine run.

Only 15 minutes offshore from the tiny dive town of Umkomaas, South Africa, Aliwal Shoal has a well-earned reputation as one of the best places on the planet to dive with sharks.

In June of 2014 the international diving community suffered a great loss when technical diver Peter Timm died after a search…

Protea Banks is famous for tiger and bull sharks, but depending on your luck and the season, you may also spot great whites, threshers, copper sharks, duskies, sandbar sharks, guitar sharks, oceanic blacktips and shoals of schooling hammerheads.

Where can you see sharks, dolphins, whales, seals, and penguins in a massive feeding frenzy? South Africa of course! Photos by Ken Knezick, Island Dreams

Since 2012, PADI Course Director and experienced tech diver Patrick Voorma has taken on the task of rediscovering Durban’s ghost fleet.

If you want to swim alongside these amazing penguins, Boulders Beach is the place to do so.

It wasn’t until 1987 that a submersible observed the first living coelacanth, also in the Comoros Islands.

Is it possible to have a severe case of the blues when scuba diving? It is if you’re surrounded by blue sharks in the crystal-clear, deep-blue waters of the Agulhas Current off South Africa.

In 2000, Sodwana Bay became internationally known after a group of technical divers rediscovered the prehistoric coelacanth in the depths of the park’s Jesser Canyon, but it is for the incredible biodiversity of the area’s shallower reefs that most divers flock there.

Crystal Divers South Africa and the Blue Marlin Hotel offer divers the perfect launch pad from which to dive Aliwal Shoal.

Long associated with South African waters, the iconic great white shark may be facing localized extinction.

Here (in no particular order) are the top places to dive with seals, often called the puppies of the sea.