Waglan Island
An interesting dive on the north-east corner of Waglan Island last Sunday. June has been the wettest month in Hong Kong since records began 125 years ago. So I suppose it’s not surprising that so much water has washed down the Pearl River and into the waters around Hong Kong. Waglan Island is an island south-east of Hong Kong island and when we arrived, the visibility looked pretty bad. Jumping in just confirmed the worst, there was practically no visibility at all in the top and I had to use a buddy line to make sure I didn’t lose my buddy. This looked like being a very short dive. However after about 5 metres we’d managed to get below the “crust”, and the visibility improved. It was still only around 2 meters, but a lot better than I’d been expecting. It was a bit dark though, so a good job we both had torches. There was a surprising amount to see. The slope drops away quite steeply, but it’s an interesting topography with some large boulders and pinnacles. There was a lot of soft coral, some nice whips, crabs, schools of anthias and damsels, plus quite a few nice nudibranchs. There were also quite a few octopi around.
It’s bizarre how much of an effect the run-off has and it did look particularly bad, with a variety of plants and bits of debris floating in it, including a surprisingly large number of plastic sandals. Fortunately we didn’t spot any of their owners. It’s ertainly not the best dive I’ve done in Hong Kong, but a lot better than I’d been expecting when I went in.
Tags: Diving