The Most Photographed Scuba Diving Spots in the World

As the days are getting longer, anticipation for the upcoming summer weather is growing, with many people having already started planning their beach getaways.

With this in mind, experts at BuildYourAquarium.com sought to discover the most Instagrammable scuba diving spots by creating a seed list of the 14 most popular diving destinations around the world and collecting the number of hashtags each had generated.

Here are the most Insta-worthy scuba diving spots ranked …

Ranking

Scuba Diving Spots

Country

Number of Instagram Hashtags

1

Sardine Run, Agulhas Bank 

South Africa

23,999

2

Tiger Beach, Grand Bahama

Bahamas

23,383

3

Tubbataha Reef

The Philippines

11,692

4

Roca Partida, Socorro

Mexico

10,328

5

Richelieu Rock, Andaman Sea 

Thailand

6,983

6

Manta Night Dive, Hawaii

USA

3,232

7

Barracuda Point, Sipadan 

Malaysia

3,065

8

SS Thistlegorm, Red Sea 

Egypt

2,836

9

Darwin Island, Galapagos

Ecuador

1,559

10

Cape Kri, Raja Ampat

Indonesia

1,068

11

South Pass, Fakarava

French Polynesia

440

12

Blue Corner Wall, Palau

Micronesia

299

13

Wolf Island, Galapagos 

Ecuador

51

14

Dinah's Beach/Lauadi, Milne Bay 

Papua New Guinea

9

The title of the most Instagrammable scuba diving spot goes to the Sardine Run in South Africa with 23,999 hashtags. Every year between the months of May and July, scuba divers have the opportunity to witness the magnificent view of billions of sardines swimming up the coast of South Africa towards Mozambique.

In second place is Tiger Beach in the Bahamas. This beach, which was found in the 1980s, managed to generate 23,383 Instagram hashtags (only 616 less than its predecessor). It is famous for the huge variety of marine animals inhabiting its waters, including various sharks, such as tiger sharks, lemon sharks and hammerhead sharks.

With 11,692 hashtags on the social media platform, the remote Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines places third. The reef, which is situated on a string of extinct underwater volcanoes, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to unique corals, along with thousands of different marine species.

Ranking in fourth and fifth place respectively are Roca Partida in Mexico (10,328 hashtags) and Richelieu Rock in Thailand (6,983 hashtags).

And the least Insta-shared scuba diving spot is …

Having a total of only 9 hashtags on Instagram (23,990 less than the Sardine Run in first place), Dinah’s Beach in Papua New Guinea ranks last in the study.

Methodology

  1. BuildYourAquarium.com sought to find out the most Instagrammable scuba diving spots in the world

  2. A comprehensive seed list of popular scuba diving spots was compiled utilising multiple websites, including: #BlueHeronBridgeFlorida">Blue Water Travel, PADI, Wanderlust, Rough Guides and Scuba Travel

  3. Only destinations that appeared more than once across the different articles were taken into consideration

  4. A refined list of 14 scuba diving spots across the world was created

  5. Following this, each diving spot was manually inputted into Instagram utilising the search variation #divingspotname and the number of hashtags generated was recorded. Search variations, such as: #tigerbeachbahamas, #tubbatahareefs and #richelieurockdiving were used in order to obtain accurate results

  6. All destinations were then ranked based on the amount of hashtags they had generated, so that the most Instagrammable scuba diving spot could be determined

  7. All data was collected on 10 February 2022 and is subject to change

Credit: https://www.buildyouraquarium.com