South Coast Diving
Below you find some of the most famous dive sites on Sri Lanka's East Coast together with a link to our
Unawatuna Diving Centre (1) - PADI 5 Star Dive Resort.
Barracuda Reef – This is a great dive site waiting to be explored and it never disappoints. The reef provides shelter for a wide variety of aquatic creatures including lionfish, rays and nudibranch. Located off the coast of Mount Lavinia near Colombo, this is a popular dive site.
Cargo Wreck – A 90 metre/295 feet wreck, which was a cargo carrier named Pecheur Breton, offers certified divers a massive wreck to explore. It sits at around 20 metres/65 feet at its shallowest point however the starboard side sits deeper than this. It is a haven for a wide variety of marine life, both big and small.
Panadura Wreck – Sitting in around 12 metres/40 feet of water, this is a popular wreck for certified divers, which is also known as the Panadura Nilkete Wreck. The dive site is accessible by a short boat ride from Panadura. This is a great site to get a taste of the wreck diving available in Sri Lanka.
Taprobane Reefs – Well offshore, some of the most pristine diving in Sri Lanka can be found on these reefs immortalized by Authur C. Clarke in his book The Reefs of Taprobane. Large patch reefs punctuated with massive coral domes are typical here. Marine life is abundant including large rays and schooling fish.
Goda Gala Diyamba – This underwater rock formation, about 10 minutes by boat from the resort town of Unawatuna on the south side of Sri Lanka, lets divers explore reef systems loaded with large fish such as trevally and Napoleon wrasse. Discovering the dive site’s real charm requires shifting focus and trying to spot some of the many types of nudibranchs.
