Dive Site: Bare Island
Right (Western) Side

General description
Bare Island offers some great diving and there are a variety of different dives you can do around Bare Island. The visibility on the right (western) side of the island tends to be not as good as the left but don’t let this put you off as there is some great diving to be had on this side of the island.

The start of the dive is shallow and mainly sand, kelp and boulders but some amazing marine life can be spotted even in this seemingly boring area of the dive. So keep your eyes peeled. There are a few different dives you can do on the western side, the two main ones are as follows:

Dive 1.
You can hug the main reef which is a rocky wall which gradually turns around the right hand side of the island. Here there are overhangs and if you follow it around far enough you will obtain about 18m, in winter tons of port Jackson sharks can be found on this dive. Good idea to take a torch for the overhangs

Dive 2.
The other popular dive is to keep following the sponge gardens out in a westerly direction. The western side of Bare Island has some of the most beautiful sponge gardens around and a wide variety of marine life can be found living amongst the beautiful coloured sponges. Red Indian fish are spotted fairly often on this dive as well as gurnards, seahorses, plus the usual things. Please take care with your buoyancy when diving this area as it is easy to destroy the sponges and the marine life that lives in them if you are not careful with your fins.

This side of the Island also makes an awesome night dive.

Entry and exit
After gearing up walking down the main pathway and over the bridge, at the end of the bridge there are steps on the left hand side; walk down these and then around to your left under the bridge. Basically, you can get in or out anywhere along this area. There's a pile of rocks that stick out into the sea which offers some protection (if there are any waves) and most of the time this area is protected from waves. On calm days you can also walk around the corner and jump in more towards the back of the Island. It would have to be very calm to get out around here, though.

Things you can see.
Commonly seen

Things to be careful of.

• Occasionally currents can be strong on this side of the island.
• Limited visibility: make sure you discuss lost buddy procedure before going on the dive
• Trust your compass during your dives here, if viz is poor its important to trust your compass.