Pemba Island – Tanzania Diving

About Pemba Island

Pemba Island, known as the Green Island for its lush vegetation and clove plantations, offers some of the most spectacular channel diving in the Indian Ocean. The Pemba channel system features dramatic gaps where tidal currents funnel through narrow passages between islands, creating nutrient-rich upwellings that attract extraordinary concentrations of pelagic life. Fundu Gap drops to over 800 metres with massive barracuda schools and grey reef sharks, Njao Gap delivers thrilling drift diving with dogtooth tuna and eagle rays, and Uvinje Gap offers giant groupers in strong tidal flows. The year-round Manta Point cleaning station provides reliable reef manta encounters at shallow depths of 8 to 15 metres. Misali Island Marine Reserve protects pristine fringing reefs with green turtles and bumphead parrotfish, while Emerald Reef showcases brilliant turquoise hard coral gardens. The southern drop-offs at Shamiani offer seasonal humpback whale encounters from August to October. Pemba receives far fewer divers than Zanzibar, preserving an exclusive frontier diving experience with extraordinary coral health and natural marine life behaviour.

Highlights

• ✓Fundu Gap – sheer wall dropping to 800 metres with massive barracuda schools
• ✓Year-round Manta Point cleaning station with reef mantas at 8-15 metres
• ✓Njao Gap thrilling drift diving with dogtooth tuna and eagle rays
• ✓Misali Island Marine Reserve with green turtles and bumphead parrotfish
• ✓Seasonal humpback whales at Shamiani from August to October
• ✓Far fewer divers than Zanzibar preserving exclusive frontier diving

Getting There

Pemba Island is accessed by light aircraft from Zanzibar (30 minutes) or Dar es Salaam (45 minutes) to Pemba Airport (PMA) near Chake Chake. A fast ferry also operates from Zanzibar (2-3 hours). The island has limited road infrastructure and most dive transfers are by boat from Chake Chake or Mkoani harbours. Some resorts offer direct transfers from the airport.