Passage Island Endemic Reef

Passage Island lies between the North and South Andaman groups and shelters an inshore reef system that concentrates the Andaman archipelago's endemic reef fish in one accessible site. The Andaman tuskfish — a thick-set wrasse with blue-green flanks found nowhere else on Earth — patrols the rubble zones at 10 to 18 m; Andaman damselfish defend anemone patches on the coral heads; and the Andaman sergeant major schools in the shallows. The dive is a gentle slope from 5 to 22 m across a mix of hard coral, coral rubble, and sand, without the strong current of the outer sites. Seahorses are regularly spotted on the soft coral at 8 m. Macro photographers rate this among the best endemic fish dives in the Bay of Bengal. Reachable by day boat from Port Blair in under an hour.