World-Class Diving
It is often said that Yap is “World Class Diving’s Best Kept Secret”. Although we have a host of charted dive sites and a program to discover more dive destinations, the fun part is that more than 50% of Yap’s reefs remain unexplored, as 100% of Yap waters are privately owned by village clans. Diving Yap’s outer reef is a quiet, personal experience. With over 30 known dive sites and less than 100 hotel rooms on the entire Island, you are almost certain to be the only divers at your dive site. It is truly an awesome, personal experience.
Yap is best known for its cultural beauty, picturesque village scenes, resident manta ray presence, clear blue water scuba diving, and a host of eco-tours and experiences.
With almost 100 miles of the barrier reef, several big channels, and lagoon sites, there is one of everything here to explore – miles of outer reef wall diving, deep and shallow channels to drift as well as inner lagoon macro and night diving.
Highlights of Yap Diving are the mantas, daily year-round reef shark diving with three kinds of interactions, nightly mating mandarin fish as well as rich coral walls and caverns.
Exotic… Still.
- Fun for Divers & non-Divers
- An entire experience awaits!
- Manta mating season – Dec thru April
- March 1st – Yap Day Cultural Celebration
- May thru September offers the calmest seas and most available dive sites
- August & September is our annual photography workshop and party, Manta Fest
- November is Yap’s Canoe Festival, a traditional sailing and heritage celebration
Yap Dive Sites
The best way to dive Yap is to know what you want to come for and set up your trip during the best season for it – if it’s mantas, then wintertime and early spring is the window of most activity.
You can check out our interactive dive sites map of the dive sites around the island.
Mantas, Sharks, Criters, …
Manta Diving
Yap has a resident population of manta rays and several shallow cleaning stations where divers can see mantas year-round.
Yap Sharks at “Vertigo”
World Class shark diving, every day… This is a true year-round rain or shines dive, Yap sharks are always home at Vertigo.
With the exception of one of the manta ray cleaning stations, almost all diving includes shark encounters and interactions.
Critters, Macro and More…
Critter diving can be in a day’s dive plan year-round. We have both inner lagoon macro dive sites as well as outer reef macro diving.
Black Water Diving
Blackwater diving is being developed in Yap. Yap sits on the rim of the Marianas Trench on the island’s Eastside, approximately 100 miles from Challenger Deep, the deepest on earth.
Exploration blackwater dives have produced cephalopods, baby sailfish, jellyfish of all sorts, crustaceans, juvenile fish, and squid predation behavior.
Military & Wreck Diving
There is a lot of maritime and military history to see in in both shallow and deeps water. We have a plane that makes a great deco spot, deeper water ships, and more.
All of this is enjoyed in small 6-8 pax fully-equipped twin-engine dive boats in small groups with veteran dive guides.