Washington

You’ll want to brush up on your nudis before diving Washington’s Hood Canal: Roughly 100 species thrive in this region’s cooler-water dive sites, with most found on or near their food sources. The more you know about each, the more likely you are to lay eyes on one.

One of the smallest species, often elusive for all but the most expert hunters, is Corambe steinbergae. It appears as an intricate, white lace doily, no bigger than a grain of rice. Divers find it feeding on kelp lace bryozoans, which encrust themselves on seaweeds.

“Every time I dive, I am looking for this one,” says Steve Kelly, a retired agriculture researcher and avid diver who logs more than 200 dives a year.

Corambe steinbergae is unique for its size, but most nudibranchs wow for their color, often wild with electric-colored patterning.

One standout is Limacia cockerelli, aka Cockerell’s dorid. It appears like a tiny anemone with a back full of bright orange fleshy appendages, and on its head, a pair of red mascara wand–like rhinophores protrude.

“You don’t usually see that kind of contrast in nature,” says Kelly.

Hood River holds a special fascination for marine biologists and nudi enthusiasts as new species are still being discovered. Just recently, one species, the Cadlina luteomarginata, was found to actually be four unique species.

Boat dives yield the most sightings, with sites such as Elephant Rock known for the small stuff. Local operator YSS Dive visits the wall dive frequently. It’s a spot where nudi fiends can find about 10 to 15 species with each drop-in.

Need To Know

When To Go/Visibility October to March delivers the most ideal visibility, at 30–50 feet. Summer can bring algae blooms that create a thick layer, making it feel like a night dive below, limiting visibility to 20 feet.

Water Temps At depth, 46–50 degrees in summer, 44 degrees in winter.

What To Bring A plastic magnifying glass for easier viewing of nudibranchs.

Contact yssdive.com

Related Reading: What Are the Best Schools to Study Marine Biology?

St. Eustatius

Amid the ballast stones, anchors, pipes and pottery of its wrecks dating to the 1700s, the island of St. Eustatius, found between Anguilla and St. Kitts, delivers some of the Caribbean’s best muck and critter diving.

At its two best critter sites—Double Wreck and Triple Wreck—divers may encounter jawfish, flying gurnards and the squat anemone shrimp aka “sexy shrimp,” named for its unusual, swaying body movements.

“But it’s not just the wreck sites where we find critters—there are loads in the coral-encrusted lava flow,” says David Hellevang, owner of the Golden Rock Dive Center, a PADI Five Star Dive Resort.

The reefs, protected by the St. Eustatius National Marine Park, are a haven for life of all sizes. By day, divers are likely to encounter shrimp, squid and octopuses. By night, even more of the small-time players come out to feed.

Night dives, typically offered weekly, spotlight the hunting behaviors of even the most seemingly benign reef residents.

The Chien Tong wreck is the best place to find sea turtles tucking under overhangs to bed down for the night. It’s also a choice spot to watch orange cup corals feast on zooplankton.

“They blossom at night,” says Hellevang.

The coral polyps extend tentacles out from their skeletons, enclosing around worms, shrimp and other tiny fare, including those drawn in by a dive light.

So many macro critters are on display during night dives, but perhaps the best tiny treasures from the island are more easily found by day. Dating back to the late 1800s and the island’s era of slavery and trading, the famous five-sided blue glass beads can still be found in the sand. Hellevang estimates that one is spotted per 12 dives; that rate is higher after a swell has passed through.

“A gentleman last year found two on two different dives,” he says. “I’ve also watched people swim right over them, so it pays to know what you’re looking for.”

Need To Know

When To Go Year-round

Visibility 60–90 feet.

Water Temps 79–82 degrees.

What To Bring Hiking boots to climb the Quill, the island’s volcano.

Contact goldenrockdive.com

Philippines

In the Philippines, critter diving isn’t so much about whether you’ll see a critter on your list so much as which colorway you’ll see it in.

At Atmosphere Resorts & Spa on the island of Negros Oriental, divers often need venture no farther than the house reef to be impressed by the color varieties.

“The hairy frogfish is one of the holy grails that everyone wants to see,” says Ulrika Kroon, sales and marketing director for the resort. We have them in five colors—black, white, red, pink and yellow.”

This species, known for its gossamer wisps of flesh, can be found in abundance on the house reef and at any of the dive sites the resort visits.

The coasts off Dumaguete and Anilao are also famous for nudibranchs. The reefs are home to more than 50 species, including Costasiella kuroshimae, the species made popular due to its resemblance to the namesake character from the animated Shaun the Sheep TV show.

Shore dive from Atmosphere and find it in four color combinations: blue and yellow, green and white, green and pink, and white.

In addition to its big displays of varying colors, the reefs also serve up wild differences in size.

“You can see a giant frogfish as big as a football and smaller ones no bigger than your pinky,” says Kroon.

The abundance of color and size varieties are only some of the surprises of Philippine diving. Another is the life that thrives amid the muck.

One of the best critter dives Atmosphere visits is Secret Corner, a site with endless brown, volcanic sand.

“There’s only sand and nothing else, so you think there’s no way you’re going to see stuff,” says Kroon.

Then the guides get to work. Within minutes, octopuses are spotted everywhere, with any given dive typically turning up at least four species from the mix that includes blue-ringed, mototi, wonderpus and the hairy octopus.

“Sometimes people complain about the sand being brown, but that color indicates nutrients, and that’s where you find loads of critters,” says Kroon.

Need To Know

When To Go/Visibility Prime season is November to May. The best visibility tends to be March through May, bringing 100 feet and more on reef dives.

Water Temps 80–85 degrees

What To Bring Coral Reefs Philippines, a Reef ID guidebook to the region’s underwater life to help spot and identify what creatures can be found.

Contact atmosphereresorts.com

Related Reading: Slug Spotter: A Guide to Photographing Nudibranchs

Readers Choice Awards 2024

This year we surveyed 13,322 readers on their favorite destinations, resorts, operators and liveaboards, awarding their top picks across a variety of categories. Our Readers Choice travel feature highlights the first-place destinations in each global region and offers a taste of what makes each a reader favorite.