Green Island

Diving here runs out of the villages on the sheltered west side, and the day has little ceremony to it. Shops load cylinders into pickups, drive a few minutes to whichever entry the wind allows, and divers walk in over a rock platform at the water's edge. Small day boats reach the more exposed points when conditions open them, but shore entries carry most of the schedule, and night dives go in from the same steps after dark.

The reef is a fringe rather than a system. Entries cross a shallow flat of coral and boulder first, and beyond it a slope of coral heads and sand channels runs down past 30 m before the ground steepens. Sites sort themselves by exposure: the sheltered western and southern bays are gentle and easy to navigate, while the exposed points sit in moving water and dive as drifts along the reef edge, with the Kuroshio deciding the pace.

A giant Porites coral head off the west coast served for years as the island's underwater landmark, until typhoon swell rolled it onto its side in the mid-2010s. The exposed points hold whatever the current has carried past, so one tank can swing from combing rubble for nudibranchs to hanging on the reef edge while jacks work the slope. It suits divers who like reef and macro at an unhurried pace and are comfortable in current; anyone travelling for big animals will find the list short.