Jangamo Reef (9 dive sites) in the Manta Coast, Mozambique

Jangamo Reef is a popular and beautiful dive site located not far off the beach of Jangamo and Guinjata Bay - approximately 3km north of Paindane. Jangamo Reef is enormous, boasting a length of more than 600 meters, this dive site offers beginners and advanced scuba divers not only the chance to explore numerous caves, grottos, gullies and amazing drop-offs but also a variety of individual reefs to choose from! Depending on your diving experience, Jangamo Reef has up to 8 reefs to delve into including Batfish Pinnacle, Devils Peak, Disneyland, Tombstone, Pao Rock and a recently discovered reef called Legoland.

With a depth range of 8-45 meters, Jangamo Reef rewards divers with a multitude of colourful small fry tropical fish species to spot including nudibranchs, cone shells, cowry sea snails, mantis shrimp, cleaner shrimp, leaf fish, pipe fish seahorse, cuttle fish, sea moths, crocodile fish, scorpion fish and stone fish. Although these species are vivid and brightly coloured, they can be quite camouflaged amongst the soft corals and in between reef crevices, so take your time exploring these reefs as it is well worth it when you do spot them!

Batfish Pinnacle:

Batfish Pinnacle is named after the shoals of batfish that are often seen swimming near the reef pinnacle. Batfish Pinnacle is located just off the point of Guinjata Bay, near Pao Reef and is known to be a favourite spot during night dives when turtles are often found sleeping under various ledges. The pinnacle hosts a beautiful display of colourful staghorn, whip, plate and soft corals such as yellow-orange wall sponge, white bowl sponge, brown wall sponge, green sponge, giant anemone, white feathery hydroids, white sponge, Colonial ascidians and thistle soft coral whilst the odd red armpit starfish, Blocked starfish, and smooth blue starfish lay within the mix.

As with many of the reefs in the area, you can expect to see a great variety of coral fish like the tridacna clam, egg cowrie, nudibranch, torpedo ray, thornspine cowfish, lizardfish, toby, powder blue surgeon, octopus and larger game fish roaming nearby like the potato bass and white tip reef sharks.

Caves & Playground Reefs:

Caves & Playground Reef is an exciting introduction for beginners where they can experience their very first swim-through on their very first dive! The reef is stunning offering an amphitheatre with various swim-throughs, caves, grottos and protruding coral rock formations - all which provide ample shelter for a diverse range of marine life. Keep an eye open for murex sea snails, conch shell, nudibranches, miniature Tobies, puffer fish, paperfish, morays eels and Orangutan crabs where you may just come across the reefs local resident, the Dragon moray eel.

Devils Peak:

Devils Peak is a popular dive site within Jangamo Reef that features an almost isolated freestanding rock, boasting a magnificent swim-through surrounded by overhanging rock formations, potholes and caves which are beautifully decorated with colourful carpet anemones, fan hydroid, whip corals and daisy soft corals. The numerous crevices and overhangs in Devils Peak makes it an ideal spot for juvenile emperor angel fish to shelter in along with the resident paperfish. Other fish species you can expect to see include porcelain crabs, ghost pipefish, frogfish by the tens, cleaner shrimp, nudibranchs, starfish, long spined urchins, potato bass and sea cucumbers that can be seen crawling on the sea floor.

Disneyland & Tombstone:

Disneyland & Tombstone is a bustling underwater 'city' with so much marine life to see, you'll feel like a kid in a candy shop, pointing in all directions. The dive site is magificent dropping from a 20 meter ledge straight down to the sea floor 45 meters down, rewarding divers with an abundance of big game fish scouting along the reef and through the deep waters including pelagic fish, honeycomb whiptail stingrays, white tip reef sharks, dusky rubberlips, potato bass and schools of sailfish. Other beautiful and smaller fish species like the longnose hawkfish, sea apple, surgeonfish and spotted unicornfish can be seens amongst a variety of bright and colourful soft corals.

Hard Rock:

Less than a kilometer off shore and near Devils Peak is Hard Rock. This dive site gradually descends from 15 meters to 18 meters and is home to an extraordinary array of tropical fish species to admire including the devil firefish, spotted tang, 6 stripe soapfish, white feather duster worm, flat worms, seamoths, Seawhip goby, Chocolate dip Chromis, bar tail flatheads, a variety of colourful starfish and is known to be a large cleaning station where an abundance of cleaner shrimp congregate. cleaner shrimps gather along the reef in small groups where they perform a side-to-side dance to attract fish clients such as the numerous moray eels that are resident to the reef. moray eels acknowledge the beckoning cleaner shrimps and begin feeding on bacteria, even within the moray's mouth - which is an interesting act of nature proving not only how trustworthy these relationships are but also allows you to witness a marine ecosystem unfolding right in front of your eyes!

Reef sharks encounters are common whilst beautiful soft & hard corals decorate the reefs.

Legoland:

Legoland Reef is a brand new addition to the Jangamo House Reef found merely minutes away from Guinjata Bay, offering advanced divers yet another unique dive site to explore. Starting from 16 meters and dropping to almost 28 meters, Legoland reef is an untouched haven filled with colourful fish species including various shrimps and tiny bizzare looking frogfish giving opportunity for the avid macro photographer the chance to add more pics to their profile collection. Pelagic game fish circle the reef, so keep an eye out for them too.

Pao Rock:

Pao Rock is another beautiful dive reef that is destined to spoil the avid macro photographer! Only a few minutes from Guinjata Bay, the reef boasts a wide variety of sponges, soft and hard corals, reef invertebrates and fish species with strikingly bright vivid colours.

Amongst the protruding boulders and rock table, you are bound to see nudibranchs, shrimps, lobster, longnose butterfly fish, whitespotted butterfly fish, two bar clownfish, anemone fish, devil firefish, scorpionfish, emperor angelfish, balloon porcupinefish, bluestreak cleaner wrasse, spotted hawkfish, dominoes, yellowback fusilier, spotted hogfish, five lined cardinal fish, paperfish, honeycomb moray eels, cave bass, moorish idols, blue tangs dark surgeonfish and more!

Divers and photographers looking to expand their coral portfolio will be thrilled to see tube anemone with light blue tentacles tentacles, yellow and black colonial squirts, honeycomb coral, orange encrusting sponge, greentree coral and of course, much more!

Pao Rock certainly proves to be a great start to your underwater adventure which will keep you captivated and wanting more!

*Information on the other 2 reefs is coming soon. Please return soon, thank you!