Flying Fish Cove

Meet the site

Flying Fish Cove is where almost every diver's Christmas Island trip starts, and many regard it as the finest shore dive in Australia. The cove is the island's only real harbour: a white-sand and coral-rubble beach backed by the old Settlement buildings, with the phosphate loading jetty and cantilever on its northern side. Underwater the layout is simple and typical of the island. A shallow fringing reef flat of hard coral runs out 30–50 m from the beach in 1–5 m of water, then the edge rolls over into a steep coral slope at around 9 m that becomes a near-vertical drop-off from about 18 m, plunging far beyond recreational depths – the island is the summit of an extinct volcano rising from more than 3000 m of water.

The coral cover on the slope is remarkably intact: plate and table Acropora, boulder Porites, lettuce corals, and sea fans and whips as you go deeper. Fish life is the draw. Christmas Island sits where Indian Ocean and Pacific faunas overlap, and the cove is the best place to see the island's endemic and hybrid reef fish – the Christmas Island (Cocos) angelfish, hybrid butterflyfish and angelfish crosses – alongside longnose, raccoon and pyramid butterflyfish, freckled hawkfish, squirrelfish, coral grouper, blue tang, surgeonfish, triggerfish and schools of fusiliers. Local accounts claim that most of the island's recorded reef-fish species can be found in the cove. Hawksbill and green turtles are common, spinner dolphins pass in deeper water, and in the wet season whale sharks cruise past the drop-off.

The cove contains two named sections that are often dived separately – Admin Wall, the steeper wall section, and the Sandpatch, a sandy garden-eel area used for training and night dives (see separate entries). Because it is shallow, sheltered for most of the year and needs no boat, it suits newly certified divers, training, photography, relaxed long dives and night dives, while experienced divers use it for afternoon dives after the morning boat trip. It is also a good snorkel at high tide over the inner reef. It is the one site on the island that can be dived fully independently with hired tanks.

What you might see

Christmas Island (Cocos) angelfish, hybrid butterflyfish and angelfish, longnose and raccoon butterflyfish, freckled hawkfish, whitetail squirrelfish, coral grouper, blue tang, surgeonfish, triggerfish, fusiliers, parrotfish, moray eels, garden eels, hawksbill and green turtles, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, spinner dolphins, whale sharks (Nov–Apr)

Location

The island's main harbour and beach at The Settlement on the north coast; entry from the boat ramp or jetty platform to a fringing reef that drops off 30–50 m from shore.

Facilities nearby

Beachside car park, toilets and outdoor showers at the car park, picnic shelters, gas/halal and non-halal barbecues, lockers, coffee van at times. Air, nitrox and tank hire from both dive shops in The Settlement (a few minutes' drive). Supermarket and cafés in The Settlement.