Million Dollar Bommie

Meet the site

Million Dollar Bommie is one of the island's favourite photography dives. On a coast where coral usually grows almost to the surface and the reef quickly becomes a wall, this site is unusual: between the cliff and the dive there is a stretch of sand and rock bottom, and on it sits a single bommie about 7 m high on a 26 m base. Extra Divers describe a shallow bommie system from 3 m to 17 m, and Diveplanit's report puts the bommie's top at about 19 m and its base at 26 m – in practice divers can make it anything from a shallow reef dive to a deeper circuit of the pinnacle.

The sand holds what Extra Divers call a famously dense garden eel colony, which rises and sways in the current. The bommie itself is thick with life: sea fans tucked beneath overhangs, and fish congregating both on the summit, where they graze algae in the light, and in its crevices. Species recorded include velvet surgeonfish, Meyer's butterflyfish, lyretail hogfish, mimic surgeonfish, red fire gobies, coral trout, parrotfish, moray eels and octopus. Occasional megafauna pass through, and snorkellers have seen manta rays go by.

The combination of a compact, well-lit structure, lots of fish and a sandy backdrop makes it a favourite for underwater photographers – the summit in particular. It is equally good for first-timers, who can stay shallow, and for experienced divers who want a relaxed but fish-rich dive. The name is a local joke that the encounters here are priceless. It is dived in the calm south-east trade season and is one of the standard sites on the run west along the north coast.

What you might see

Garden eels, velvet surgeonfish, Meyer's butterflyfish, lyretail hogfish, mimic surgeonfish, red fire gobies, coral trout, parrotfish, moray eels, octopus, sea fans, occasional manta rays

Location

A 7 m-high coral bommie on a 26 m sand and rock base below the cliffs on the north coast, near the water tanks west of Flying Fish Cove.

Facilities nearby

Departs Flying Fish Cove jetty/ramp.