Buada Lagoon Reef

Buada Lagoon is a landlocked brackish water body in the interior of Nauru, but the fringing ocean reef seaward of the Buada district on the southern coast offers a completely different experience: a shallow rubble and coral garden in 5 to 18 metres that functions as one of the most productive macro dive sites in Micronesia. Nudibranchs of at least thirty recorded species carpet the rubble patches, pygmy seahorses have been reported on sea fans at depth, and pipefish, ghost pipefish, and frogfish occupy the algae mats. Because the terrain is sheltered and shallow, this is the most beginner-accessible dive on Nauru and the safest option in variable weather. The absence of any dive tourism means many of the macro species here have almost certainly never been photographed.