Snorkeling in Taiwan

[seavenger]

Any good place to snorkeling in Taiwan?

 

[Makhno]

I can't speak from experience -- yet -- but I've heard good things about both Green Island and Kenting National Park. If I can get my schedule sorted out, I'll be diving Kenting for my first time this upcoming weekend. I think there's also some snorkeling on Xiao Liu Chiu island. I don't know whether there's any snorkeling on Orchid Island or whether it's too deep for that, but I've heard that Orchid Island offers the best scuba diving in Taiwan. You can find at least a little bit of English-language info about all of those places online. See, e.g., www.taiwandive.com - Kenting - Green Island - Orchid Island - XiaoLiuChiu or Green Island Adventures just for starters.

 

[Makhno]

Sample size is very limited (N=4 dives, 2 boat & 2 shore) so statistically speaking my comments ain't worth much, but here are my first impressions of Kenting National Park:

Pretty good invertebrate life (corals, anemones, crinoids/feather starts, hydroids, a couple octopi and mantis shrimps, a handful of nudibranchs) ... sadly, not many fishes. Some damsels, some smallish jacks/trevallies, many clownfishes, some pipefish, some lizardfish, a few batfish, a few lionfish, and miscellaneous other reef fishes in low numbers. Very few pelagics, and none very big. "The Taiwanese are good fishermen," I was told, but Kenting is supposed to be a marine sanctuary! ... good diving, but not great.

I'll do Kenting again, and do so happily, but from what I've been told Kenting isn't the best diving in Taiwan. I'm looking forward to Orchid Island and to Green Island for better marine life encounters.

 

[tactical_hid]

I've gone snorkeling in Taiwan in the city of Kenting. There is a rock called Sail Rock / Nixons nose. It's a huge rock that goes down deep into the water. There is some great snorkling around that area.