Scuba Diving In Mafia Island Tanzania
As an add on to my safari tour in Tanzania I decided that I would try scuba diving out in the islands off the coast despite the need for to take a few propellor plane flights to get there and back. The three main islands just east of Tanzania’s largest city Dar es Salaam are Zanzibar, Mafia Island and Pemba Island. My research on scubaboard revealed that Mafia and Pemba has the better diving while the touristy Zanzibar would not be worth diving especially after going to either Mafia or Pemba. I decided to go dive at Mafia Island even though I would have to book five separate flights in advance with domestic airlines Precision Air and Auric Air.
From Kilimanjaro where my safari operator dropped me off I flew Precision to Dar es Salaam airport then flew Auric Air to Mafia Island. It’s at this airport I got my first rip off in Tanzania (not including the $50 US evisa I got before coming to Tanzania and the outrageously expensive $325 yellow fever vaccine I got back home in Canada which I didn’t even need). Precision Air landed at one terminal but Auric Air flies out of another much smaller terminal that is not connected. Airport staff directed me to take a quick five minute cab which cost $17 which is the rip off
Big Blu Mafia Island Dive Centre
At least all my dive gear made it all the way from Canada to Mafia Island where I booked a three night, two dive days package with Big Blu Mafia Island Dive Centre. I took their standard room option which are cabins with ensuite bathrooms. Big Blu also has a lower cost accommodation option using tents and a separate bathroom shared facility. My package also included breakfast and taxi transfer service to and from the dive resort.
The resort itself is well laid out with the rooms, dining and lounge areas and the dive centre all pretty close together facing the beach where their dive boats are. The wifi works only in the lounge and dining areas rather than resort wide which was a bit of an inconvenience but this was the same issue with most of the accommodations I stayed in during my safari tour over on the mainland.
Like the other dive resorts on Mafia Island, Big Blu is within a marine park and therefore fees apply. This is specified on Big Blu’s website and as these marine park fees are paid separately, my taxi stopped at a booth on the way to the resort where I paid marine park fees for the duration of my stay. These fees must be paid with credit card. Upon my departure from Big Blu, the taxi also stopped at this same booth again where they verified fees paid for my stay. I hope they put these funds to good use even though I did see fishing boats out in the water that perhaps were not suppose to be there.
My package also included breakfast each morning plus unlimited coffee/tea. I skipped lunch but did stay at the resort for their dinners which were a very reasonable $12 US for a choice of set meals which exceeded my expectations as did most meals I’ve had during my entire time in Tanzania.
The diving here on Mafia Island is a bit different from most locations around the world as they must time their dive trips with tides (actually some dive sites in BC Canada are also timed with tides too). So each dive day can start at different times of the day which are announced the day before. I had two days of diving with my first one starting at 8:30 am and the next day at 10:45 am. Each time we walked out on the beach into the water to access the dive boats which were traditional wooden boats powered by single outboard motors. These were not modern dive boats by any means and they were quite slow but at least none of the dive sites were too far away.
They had two captains on each dive boat plus a dive master. Sometimes they even had additional staff on board serving tea after the first dive. I felt the local divemasters were adequate.
The Scuba Diving At Mafia Island
Each dive day consisted of two tank dives and in my case all four dives were on average 45 to 60 feet maximum depth and about 45 minutes. My dive computer read water temperature of 26 C degrees but there was definitely a thermocline at about 40 feet. I stayed above this thermocline most times not only because I wanted to stay in the warmer waters but also there tended to be more marine life above the thermocline.
As for the marine life, I would say that the fish life was healthy numbers and above average with many big schools. Coral life on the other end hand was just average or even slightly below average compared to most Caribbean dive sites. We didn’t see any big stuff like turtles, sharks or rays but did see some nice size lobsters with spines longer than those in the Caribbean and a few large groupers.
Overall Assessment Of Scuba Diving At Mafia Island
Overall, I felt that it was worth coming to Mafia Island to scuba dive for a few days especially as part of a bigger safari trip in Tanzania since I was already in the region. However, I would not recommend coming here as a standalone dive trip. The diving was decent but not in the level of Little Cayman, Raja Ampat or Sipidan. And since dive trips here must be timed with high tides, we never really know when they will start and can take up much of the day just for two dives.
I personally got a bit bored when not diving since there really wasn’t much else to do at Big Blu other than to chill out and relax. I would much prefer a location where I can get in at least morning and afternoon dives if I wanted to. Unfortunately the timing of the dives did not work out for the optional whale shark snorkeling excursions which ran only during mornings but from what I heard from other guests these trips were too crowded anyway. Good thing I already had amazing whale shark experiences during my Galapagos liveaboard dive trip.
So overall I would recommend coming to Mafia Island to scuba dive but only for a few days and only if it’s an add on to a safari over on the mainland. And since you are so close to Zanzibar, it’s probably worth it to spend a few days there too which is what I did. If I ever return to Tanzania for another safari, I might want to travel to Pemba Island to try the diving there next time.
