Cape May - Johnny Buoy
New Jersey · 12.8–18.9 m
Artificial reef built from 46' Bouy Tender - "Johnny Bouy" NJDEP deployment record: Ship, material: 46' Bouy Tender - "Johnny Bouy", deployed 1993.
IntermediateBoat entry
United States Dive Sites
1,024 mapped sites
Explore on mapBest dive sites in United States
Showing 109–120 of 1,024
McKinney Park / Clark Point, Lake Winnipesaukee
New Hampshire · 3–32 m
The best-known shore dive on Lake Winnipesaukee, entered from the small town McKinney Park at the end of Clark Road in Wolfeboro. A shallow rocky training area gives way to huge boulder formations around 30 feet, and at about 45 feet a freshwater wall drops to 90 feet with a maximum depth around 105 feet and a small cavern at its base. Coarse sand keeps visibility up to about 25 feet on good days.
IntermediateShore entry
Cape May - Elizabeth
New Jersey · 12.8–21.9 m
Artificial reef built from 194' Ferry Boat - "Elizabeth" (AKA "Hooter's Ferry") NJDEP deployment record: Ship, material: 194' Ferry Boat - "Elizabeth" (AKA "Hooter's Ferry"), deployed 2005.
IntermediateBoat entry
Ocean City - Electrical Tower
New Jersey · 17.1–18 m
Artificial reef built from Tower (electrical) NJDEP deployment record: Steel, material: Tower (electrical), deployed 1986.
Boat entry
Puako Verified
Hawaii · 2–18 m
Puako is a multi-entry Kohala shore reef system rather than one tiny point. Divers and snorkelers use lava-finger channels, sandy cuts, pukas/caves, and reef slopes around Puako Village and Puako Beach Drive. It can be excellent for turtles, white-tip reef sharks, rays, and reef fish, but entry and navigation are more demanding than a resort-beach snorkel site.
IntermediateShore entry
SS Selah Chamberlain Wreck
Wisconsin · 24–27 m
The wooden bulk freighter Selah Chamberlain sank in a foggy 1886 collision off Sheboygan with the loss of five crew. The wreck lies in 90 feet of water two miles northeast of Sheboygan Point, broken into three sections on sand, with the fantail stern split open to expose her boilers and engine. A WHS mooring buoy and published dive guide make it a staple intermediate-advanced charter dive on the Shipwreck Coast.
IntermediateBoat entry
Harbor of Refuge Breakwater (Outer Wall)
Delaware · 1.5–18.3 m
The mile-and-a-half-long outer breakwater off Cape Henlopen, built of more than a million tons of granite in the early 1900s to shelter the mouth of Delaware Bay. The submerged rock slope is heavily encrusted with mussels and attracts tautog, sheepshead, striped bass and record-class black drum, making it the region's storied freediving and scuba spearfishing site; the Gypsum Prince wreck lies at its seaward end. Depths along the wall run from the surface rocks down to about 40-70 ft on the surrounding bottom, with strong tidal flow around the structure.
IntermediateBoat entry
Bird Rock (Catalina Island)
California · 6.1–25.9 m
A large white-domed rock at the edge of Isthmus Harbor near Two Harbors, offering varied terrain: shallow reef, an underwater arch, and a wall that drops vertically from about 20 ft to 70 ft, with another section running from the surface to 85 ft with deep undercuts. Scattered boulders and kelp continue to 60-80 ft. The boundary of the Blue Cavern Onshore State Marine Conservation Area cuts through the reefs here, so most divers treat it as a no-take site.
IntermediateBoat entry
Big Blue (Lester Milligan Park)
Iowa · 1.5–10.7 m
Big Blue is a flooded clay pit of about 14 acres in Lester Milligan Park on the west side of Mason City, used heavily for open-water training. Attractions include a training platform at about 13 ft, several derelict vehicles along the east side, and a roughly 25 ft sailboat. Maximum depth is about 33-35 ft with visibility around 20 ft.
Shore entry
Mary Alice B Wreck (Sanilac Shores Underwater Preserve)
Michigan · 25.9–29 m
The Mary Alice B is a 62-ft steel tug built in 1931 for the Army Corps of Engineers (originally named Quintus) that foundered off Port Sanilac in September 1975 and was located in 1992. She sits upright and remarkably intact in about 92-95 ft of Lake Huron within the Sanilac Shores Underwater Preserve. The pilothouse, with the wheel still in place, offers a swim-through for trained divers, though silt is easily disturbed inside.
AdvancedBoat entry
Catfish Hotel Sink
Florida · 3–21.3 m
Catfish Hotel is a duckweed-covered karst window in Manatee Springs State Park on the Suwannee River, connected to the Manatee Springs cave system. Divers descend a wooden staircase into a ~35 ft basin, with a large cavern entrance around 50 ft that opens into a daylight zone reaching about 70 ft. It is a classic North Florida cavern/cave training and staging site, named for the schools of catfish that congregate in the basin.
IntermediateShore entry