okinawa dive center
Dive Shop Bluefield

Hi everyone, it’s Miho

Today was on and off rainy and sunny in Okinawa, you know, typical tropical weather. Very unpredictable.

It was the second day of diving with Kathy and Joe – specialists of coral. We dove Yurigahama, Chishi, and Tamana Farm yesterday in the Kerama Islands, and I took them out to our local spots on Okinawa West Coast today.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Okinawa West Coast

1. Yamada (Onna)
2. Maeda (Onna)
3. Maeda Drop (Onna)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 32C (90F)
Water: 29C (85F)
Visibility: 30m + (100ft)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Our first dive at Yamada was so much fun, and the dives around Maeda, including the one in front of Blue Cave, and a drift – anchor dive from the drop off.

Although they were beginners in SCUBA diving (just got OW certified), they are so knowledgeable about coral and environment, which I learned alot from diving with them. We had different perspective than our normal daily dives – we were always just looking beneath the coral and trying to find something unusual and cool!

We talked and discussed a lot about Okinawa’s current oceanic environment and coral reef conservation issues.

Miho

Today, we had good dives at Zampa area.

With the strong wind from South, we chose to dive the Zampa area, because it’s all protected from the wind, has a variety of dive site just like Kerama Islands, and have dynamic seascapes.

***Today’s Okinawa Diving Information**
Zampa (Okinawa West Coast)

1. Bolo Point
2. Nagahama
3. Mishiragi

(See the Okinawa Dive Site Map)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Strong South Wind
Air: 30C (86F)
Water: 28C (82F)
Visibility: 20m+ (70ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Bolo Point is our favorite – we just dove the same dive site last weekend, but depending on where we anchor the boat, this dive spot has totally different view.
Swimthrus, caves, and drop-off.
Lots of colorful fish. Fire dartfish, Octopus….
Saori found a cute Leaf Fish over there as well.

I think these caves are better than Blue Cave at Maeda.
We had very good visibility too.

Nagahama, we found some cool nudibranch, banded coral shrimps, and lots of anemonefish.

For these dives, as both maximum depth and average depth get deeper than other dive sites, it’s nice to dive with Enriched Air (Nitrox).

From the end of May to June is the season for coral hatching eggs, around Okinawa Main Island & Kerama Islands sea.
Kensuke Yokoi – a video grapher and also known as an authority of researching and coral preservation in Okinawa, always provides us with estimate dates of coral hatching every year, based on his observation records.

It is know that coral hatch eggs on a night around a spring tide day.
However, last couple of years in Okinawa, it is not necessarily on a spring tide day.
The water temperature, weather conditions, environmental factors affect coral’s growth.

The before and after the day of coral hatching eggs, you can even smell it.

Today, we had a couple of dives at Oyama (Ginowan) and Chatan Underwater Ruins (Sunabe) to observe how coral are having eggs this year.
We had Mr. Kensuke Yokoi – a videographer and a researcher of coral reef – as a lecturer, and invited many dive guides & instructors from other dive shops on the island.

We learned how to distinguish coral with eggs and how they are growing.
Mr. Yokoi taught us the estimate date when all the coral hatching eggs this year.
It seems coral reef in Sunabe are growing their eggs faster than Ginowan this year.

Hi everyone,

We enjoyed another good day of diving in the Kerama Islands.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info***
Kerama Islands

1. Yurigahama (Zamami Island)
2. Chishi (Zamami Island)
3. Kamigu (Gishippu Island)

Objective: Boat Fun Dives
Air: 25C (77F)
Water: 23C (73.4F)
Visibility: 30m (100ft.)
Suits: 3mm – 5mm one piece + hood

We enjoyed lots of swim thrus, especially the Blue Cave of Chishi. The coral reef at Yurigahama is beautiful and healthy as always. That provides home for lots of fish and sharks.

The divers we had during the golden week were diving at least 3 days, and some of them were diving 5 days.

Just a day of diving is not enough to get most out of Okinawa Diving experience here, more than a couple of days would be good.

When you are diving multiple days, Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) is good for you for safer diving.

Today, we had a staff training session with many dive guides from dive shops in central Okinawa.

In winter, we always try to have a staff training session using our boat, inviting young dive guides from other shops.

1. Prevention of Boat Dive Accidents
2. Basic Crew Work on the Boat (Rope Works)
3. Drift Diving Techniques
4. Dive Site Research
5. Coral Reef Conservation Activity (Cleaning up of Thais Bronni)

Noboru, our captain, gave a lecture about crew work so that we can prevent accidents when anchoring the boat.
Many factors are involved in judgement and proper way of choosing the way we anchor our boat – wind direction, how strong the wind is, swell direction… many combinations of this.

Also, we had a practice session of drift dives.
As you learn as a part of your Advanced or Specialty Courses, there are many safety aspects to carry out drift dives.
We, as dive guides, need to know even more when choosing the right route, managing the time, entry and exsit…. according to the ocean condition – wind, currents, swells, etc.
At the end of the practice session, we shoot all of our SMB (Surface Marker Buoy) and compared which one is most visible for the boat captain.

Then, we went diving the following dive sites to learn the dive sites more.
Also, while diving, we cleaned up some shells called Thasis Bronni (species of muricid gastropod) ｄand Crown-of-Thorns which eat coral.
Since the massive outbreak of Crown-of-Thorns in 1998, it has been more than 10 years – more and more coral grew back and Okinawa’s Ocean getting more beutiful and healthy every year.

1. Oyama (Okinawa, Ginowan)
2. Marina 225 (Okinawa, Kadena)
3. Inanbishi (Okinawa, Kadena)

We still keep cleaning up the sea creatures which harm these coral reefs so that we can maintain the beautiful ocean here.