Diving and snorkeling in Cabo Verde
Diving in Cape Verde is an experience you will hardly ever forget. The location of the archipelago makes this one of the most diverse marine life sanctuaries, where you will be able to find a little bit of everything from big whales, to ever so small nudibranchs.
For those who have not started scuba diving already, there are many possibilities to snorkel. However, the relatively short continental platform surrounding the islands makes it hard to have horizontal reef dives. Instead you are offered a wide variety of open water dives, huge vertical (wall) reefs, cave dives and ship wrecks to explore either from the bottom or the surface of the water. Snorkeling is usually an activity that we recommend doing in deeper waters, instead of just off the shore, because the waves lift up sand making the water cloudier and the visibility worse.
In these waters it is easy to spot any type of animal. Between January and March, the winter months, you might be lucky enough to encounter a few humpbacks and sperm whales passing through the islands on their annual migration. The rest of the year, you can easily find sharks, mantas, morays and turtles, as well as a wide variety of fishes. Trumpet and blow-fishes are some of the easiest species to find in the relatively shallow waters.
The wide variety of diving spots in Cape Verde allows any type of diver to get in its waters, whether you’re a beginner or an expert. Diving is usually an activity you can carry year round, nonetheless during the rainy season (from July to October), and depending on the island, visibility might be affected due to run off.
To see the bigger animals mentioned above – whales, mantas and sharks – we recommend the divers to be proficient in this sport, as these animals are not easy to spot onshore, due to their size. This type of diving implicates deeper waters, which we do not recommend to inexperienced divers. You can always talk directly to the instructor or dive-master accompanying you to make sure you get the best out of your experience.