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Animals

I have never picked a destination and hoped. I pick an animal — a thresher shark, a mandarinfish, a pygmy seahorse the size of a fingernail — then work out where it lives, when it shows up and how deep, and build the trip around that. This index is that habit written down.

So it starts with the animal rather than the country. Each page gives the destinations worth going to, the season, the depth to plan for, whether it means a night dive — and an honest read on your odds, because this is wild animals and nobody can promise you one.

This site is the notebook behind Tortuba — a dive log and fish guide for iPhone and iPad. Free, no account, works with no signal.

What the rarity tiers mean

How often you actually meet the animal on a typical dive within its range. It rates the species, not the destination — so a Unicorn can still be a near-sure thing at the one site built around it, and each animal page says which sites those are. Nothing here is a promise: these are wild animals.

A reef manta ray seen from below, its pale underside marked with the dark spot pattern that identifies each individual, gliding over a Maldivian cleaning station.

Manta Rays

Mobula alfredi & Mobula birostris

Shy~1 in 10 dives

A gentle, plankton-feeding giant with a wingspan of up to 7 meters that glides over reef cleaning stations and feeding grounds.

6 destinations →

A whale shark cruising just below the surface at Ningaloo Reef, its checkerboard of pale spots clearly visible, with a snorkeller above for scale.

Whale Sharks

Rhincodon typus

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

The biggest fish in the sea — a slow, plankton-feeding shark that can reach 12 meters yet is completely harmless to swimmers.

6 destinations →

A hammerhead shark passing close to the camera, the flattened, hammer-shaped head that names the family clearly visible.

Hammerhead Sharks

Family Sphyrnidae

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

The hammerhead family — a handful of species built around the cephalofoil, that flattened hammer of a head. The one divers cross oceans for is the scalloped, which gathers in schools of hundreds.

1 destination →

A sunfish hanging almost motionless in blue water off Bali, showing its tall dorsal fin and the rudder-like clavus where a tail fin would be.

Mola Mola

Mola alexandrini

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

The heaviest bony fish in the ocean, which rises from deep water to Bali's cleaning stations for a few months each year.

1 destination →

A pelagic thresher shark over the reef at Monad Shoal, its upper tail lobe as long as the rest of its body.

Thresher Sharks

Alopias pelagicus (pelagic thresher)

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

A slender deep-water shark with a whip-like tail as long as its body, which it cracks overhead to stun schooling fish — and which visits shallow cleaning stations at dawn off Malapascua.

1 destination →

A green sea turtle swimming over Hawaiian reef, mirrored in the underside of the water surface above it.

Sea Turtles

Chelonia mydas (green turtle) & Eretmochelys imbricata (hawksbill)

Crowd Pleaser~4 in 5 dives

The green sea turtle — honu in Hawaii — is the reef's most beloved reptile, and the only sea turtle that hauls out to bask on land almost daily.

1 destination →

A spotted wobbegong resting head-on on sand, the branching fringe of skin lobes around its jaw and its carpet of pale O-shaped rings clearly visible.

Wobbegongs

Family Orectolobidae

Shy~1 in 10 dives

The wobbegongs — flat, bearded carpet sharks that lie still on the reef and let their camouflage do the work. The showpiece is the tasselled wobbegong of Raja Ampat.

1 destination →

A blacktip reef shark cruising just beneath a flat calm surface with its own reflection above it, the black tips on the first dorsal and pectoral fins clearly visible.

Blacktip Reef Sharks

Carcharhinus melanopterus

Crowd Pleaser~4 in 5 dives

The small, black-and-white-finned shark of the reef flat — the one whose dorsal cuts the surface of a lagoon in ankle-deep water.

3 destinations →

A basking shark at the surface seen from a boat, its tall dark dorsal fin standing clear of the water and the broad, blunt snout and huge gill region visible just beneath.

Basking Sharks

Cetorhinus maximus

Unicorn~1 in 100 dives

The second-largest fish in the sea, and a surface-feeding plankton eater you meet by snorkel rather than on scuba.

1 destination →

A grey reef shark cruising in open blue water beside a school of jacks, its blunt snout and the dark trailing edge of its tail clearly visible, with a second shark further back.

Grey Reef Sharks

Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos

Usual Suspect~1 in 3 dives

The classic Indo-Pacific channel shark — a sleek grey torpedo with a black-edged tail that holds station in moving water.

3 destinations →

An adult leopard shark resting on sand, its pale body covered in the dark spots adults carry — juveniles are boldly striped instead, which is why the species is also called the zebra shark.

Leopard Sharks

Stegostoma tigrinum

Shy~1 in 10 dives

A spotted, bottom-resting carpet shark with a tail nearly as long as its body — asleep on the sand by day, hunting shellfish by night.

3 destinations →

A pelagic thresher shark passing over the shoal in dim early-morning light, its upper tail lobe roughly as long as the rest of its body.

Pelagic Thresher Sharks

Alopias pelagicus

Unicorn~1 in 100 dives

The only shark that hunts by whipping its tail over its own head — and the one thresher a diver can actually plan to meet.

2 destinations →

A great hammerhead taking bait from the hand of a shark diver on a shallow sand flat, its very tall sickle-shaped dorsal fin and the near-straight front margin of its head both clearly visible.

Great Hammerheads

Sphyrna mokarran

Unicorn~1 in 100 dives

The largest hammerhead — a solitary ray-hunter with a scythe-like dorsal fin, and one of the hardest big sharks in the world to find on a dive.

1 destination →

A school of scalloped hammerheads cruising through blue water, several of the notched, hammer-shaped heads clearly visible.

Scalloped Hammerheads

Sphyrna lewini

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

The schooling hammerhead — the one that gathers by the hundred over the seamounts at Darwin and Wolf, and off Yonaguni in a cold Okinawan winter.

1 destination →

A tasselled wobbegong resting motionless under a coral ledge in Raja Ampat, its fringed beard and mottled pattern blending into the sponges around it.

Tasselled Wobbegongs

Eucrossorhinus dasypogon

Shy~1 in 10 dives

The most ornate of the carpet sharks — a beard of branching skin flaps rings its whole head — and the signature reef find of Raja Ampat.

1 destination →

A tiger shark in profile over pale sand, the faint dark vertical bars that name the species visible along its flank, with its blunt, squared-off snout and heavy body.

Tiger Sharks

Galeocerdo cuvier

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

The big, blunt-nosed generalist of warm seas — striped when young, apex when grown. On managed dives it is slow, curious and unnervingly close.

2 destinations →

A whitetip reef shark swimming over the reef, the white tips on its first dorsal fin and upper tail lobe clearly visible.

Whitetip Reef Sharks

Triaenodon obesus

Usual Suspect~1 in 3 dives

The slim reef shark that sleeps by day and hunts by night — the one you find stacked motionless under a ledge, white-tipped fins and all.

1 destination →

A bull shark cruising low over white sand, its thickset body and short, bluntly rounded snout clearly visible against the pale bottom.

Bull Sharks

Carcharhinus leucas

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

The thickset requiem shark that swims up rivers — and the reason the Riviera Maya has a winter shark season.

1 destination →

An epaulette shark resting on sand between branching Acropora coral on a reef flat, the surface visible just above it, with the dark spot behind its pectoral fin showing.

Epaulette Sharks

Hemiscyllium ocellatum

Shy~1 in 10 dives

The shark that walks — a small, patient reef-flat hunter that uses its fins as legs and can outlast almost any fish in water with no oxygen left in it.

1 destination →

A great white shark passing close in green temperate water, its conical snout, countershaded flank and tall dorsal fin filling the frame.

Great White Sharks

Carcharodon carcharias

Unicorn~1 in 100 dives

The largest predatory fish alive, and the one shark a diver cannot simply go and find — every reliable encounter on earth happens from a cage.

1 destination →

A nurse shark cruising over a seagrass bed, showing its broad flat head, small eye and the long upper lobe of its tail.

Nurse Sharks

Ginglymostoma cirratum

Usual Suspect~1 in 3 dives

The Caribbean’s most-seen shark, and almost always asleep when you meet it — a heavy-bodied suction feeder that does its real work after dark.

1 destination →

An oceanic whitetip shark under the surface with pilot fish alongside, its huge rounded first dorsal and broad paddle-shaped pectoral fins both tipped with mottled white.

Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

Carcharhinus longimanus

Unicorn~1 in 100 dives

Once among the most abundant large animals on earth, now Critically Endangered — and met in open blue water with no bottom beneath you.

1 destination →

A brownbanded bamboo shark tucked under a rocky overhang, its slender plain-brown body and rearward-set dorsal fins visible in the shadow.

Bamboo Sharks

Chiloscyllium spp.

Shy~1 in 10 dives

A small, slender, cat-like shark that spends the day jammed under a rock and the night walking the reef looking for crabs.

1 destination →

A silvertip shark in blue water, the broad bright white margins on its dorsal, pectoral and tail fins clearly visible.

Silvertip Sharks

Carcharhinus albimarginatus

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

The grey reef shark’s larger, bolder cousin, edged in brilliant white and far more inclined to come and look at you.

1 destination →

A tawny nurse shark resting wedged under a coral ledge, its plain tawny-brown body, small eye and broad flat head visible in the shade.

Tawny Nurse Sharks

Nebrius ferrugineus

Shy~1 in 10 dives

The Indo-Pacific’s nurse shark — a big, placid, day-sleeping suction feeder that turns into a serious nocturnal hunter.

1 destination →

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Bigeye Thresher Sharks

Alopias superciliosus

Unicorn~1 in 100 dives

The deep-water thresher, with eyes built to look upward through 400 metres of darkness — and almost never seen by divers.

1 destination →

A group of Port Jackson sharks resting together on sand in cold green water, the dark harness markings across their shoulders visible on the nearest animals.

Port Jackson Sharks

Heterodontus portusjacksoni

Usual Suspect~1 in 3 dives

A blunt-nosed, harness-marked bullhead shark that fills Sydney’s winter gutters and lays the strangest egg case in the sea.

1 destination →

A silky shark in open blue water, its slender streamlined body and long sickle-shaped pectoral fins clearly visible.

Silky Sharks

Carcharhinus falciformis

Collector's Item~1 in 25 dives

A sleek, schooling open-ocean shark named for the feel of its skin, and most often met circling in the blue beneath a liveaboard.

1 destination →