Mafia Island Marine Park

Mafia Island’s marine ecosystem was given international recognition in July 1995, through designation as a Marine Park. There are over 400 species of fish in the Park and Chole Bay is a meeting place of large oceanic fish and a vast variety of reef fish common to the Indian Ocean. This is a true paradise for both scuba diving and snorkelling.

Scuba diving & snorkelling

Pole Pole and Chole Mjini both offer daily snorkelling trips. Scuba Diving trips can be arranged on request by Baobab or on arrival for very reasonable prices. Chole Mjini offers a special scuba diving package during the period 1st November to 15th December and 10th January to 1st February. The dive package includes one-week accommodation in either their unique treehouses or beach tents, full board with soft drinks, beer and wine and 10 dives. Please contact us for further details.

Both resorts work together to provide the best possible diving service. As a result of the intimate nature of these resorts, you will never scuba dive in a crowd. Eight divers maximum per dhow, but it can be as few as one. You can usually choose where you want to scuba dive and with whom, and will always be accompanied by a professional with local knowledge.

Customer testimonial

Kinasi Pass – South Wall a 5-star rated dive

To give you a taster of the awesome diving in Mafia; Kinasi Pass – South Wall a five star rated dive (max. depth 27m, experienced divers only). At the mouth of Chole Bay, where the sheltered bay meets the open ocean, there is a deep & narrow channel through shallower coral. The reef slopes gently down to 15m and then plummets vertically to almost 30m. This wall and caverns at its base are home to big Critters, Potato Cod, Napoleans, Giant groupers and Morays. A lot of plankton and other suspended food passes through the channel, so schools of Snapper, Sweetlips, Barracuda, Trevally, Cobia, Tuna are common. If you are lucky you will encounter the occasional shark on the lookout for a snack. Giant reef rays are common, but Whale sharks, Eagle rays and Manta rays are seasonal visitors (late December through March).