Scuba Diving & Snorkeling Okinawa

I came to Okinawa expecting a lot. Looking at google earth, it looked like sheer paradise. Coral surrounding much of the island, beaches everywhere, which means snorkeling and diving should be good, right? Well, yes and no. Yes because there were an amazing amount of coral with a lot of variety. Places like Iriomote had walls of it 15 foot tall, plus, you'd have to walk out 100-200m just to get to the break. The ocean is real calm so there's not much danger of getting caught in a current. There are sea turles, manta rays in the summer, whale sharks and hammerheads in the winter and an underwater city like formation that no one knows how got there. No, because many typhoons sweep through this area and the coral often get shattered when the storm is too big. I've been to many places to dive and snorkel and unfortunately, shattered coral is quite common so really, it's no shock. The fish diversity is massive. There are fish of all sorts living amongst the coral but sadly, there were very few large fish which I like to see. The problem is me, I've been to quite a few tropical islands and seen some pretty amazing locations so I'm quite spoiled when it comes to this.

Overall, I'd say to the average unseasoned eye, you'd be thoroughly impressed. David Peyrot in my video definitely was! I can't complain too much either, I saw three 4 meter wide manta rays, didn't I?