Salalah, Oman
Diving Conditions
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Water Temperature: From 24-26°C (winter and summer) up to 27-30°C (fall and spring)
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Visibility: average 10-15m
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Currents: There can be currents in some dive sites (up to 1-1.5 knots)
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Air Temperature: 20-30°C; July to September is very rainy in Salalah as the monsoons arrive (known as Khareef).
What to Expect Underwater
The visibility underwater is not fantastic and the landscape is not very colorful. There are a lot of soft corals and some hard corals. However, there are very large schools of fish (fusiliers, sweetlips, etc.) which are not shy so you can swim very close to them. There are also a lot of moray eels of different types (dragon, yellow mouthed, peppered, just to name a few). For the macro lovers there is a fair bit of nudibranchs and small shrimp and for those that prefer bigger creatures we saw dolphins, turtles, massive groupers and hunting tuna, sting, eagle and mobula rays and if you are lucky you can see sharks (guitar, bull and leopard).
What makes the diving in the area good are the schools of fish and the general lack of people and other divers.
The corals are relatively healthy, just occasional signs of bleaching, but on the whole they are in much better health than in other places. It was also good to note that there is not too much trash underwater. There are some ghost nets and abandoned lobster pots but when it comes to small items of rubbish, we were just picking up maybe an item every two dives, even when diving in Ras Mirbat, close to the mainland.
Diving Logistics
Liveaboards:
There are two liveaboards which operate in the area:
We dived the Hallaniyat Islands itinerary on the Oman Aggressor Liveaboard.
Dive Centers
There are also several dive shops around Salalah and Mirbat, however we have not contacted or used any of them.
