Belle Mare Passe

Belle Mare Passe is an advanced dive site on Mauritius's eastern coast, where a natural pass in the fringing reef creates a channel that concentrates marine life and generates current-driven diving of genuine excitement. Reaching eighteen meters depth, this site offers experienced divers the dynamic conditions that reef passes are famous for — moving water, concentrated nutrients, and the larger marine species that gather at these natural bottlenecks in the reef system. The boat from the Belle Mare area navigates to the reef pass, where the transition between lagoon and open ocean is marked by a visible change in water color and energy. The dive begins at the pass entrance, where the reef walls rise on either side of the channel and the current carries divers through the gap in a controlled drift. The sensation of being transported through a narrow underwater corridor, with reef walls streaming past on both sides and marine life concentrated in the current flow, is one of diving's most exhilarating experiences. The pass walls are richly decorated with marine growth that thrives in the constant nutrient flow. Soft corals and gorgonians stream from the rock face, their flexible forms extending into the current to feed. Hard corals colonize the more sheltered surfaces, and the overall biological density on the pass walls exceeds most reef sites by a significant margin. The current carries plankton through the channel, attracting filter feeders and the fish that prey on them, creating a concentrated food chain that makes the pass a marine life hotspot. The marine encounters in the pass can be spectacular. Schools of trevally and barracuda patrol the channel in powerful formations, drawn by the concentration of prey species. Eagle rays occasionally sweep through the pass with graceful wingbeats, and reef sharks are possible during certain seasons. The reef fish community is dense and active, with surgeonfish, fusiliers, and snappers filling the water column in schools that part around advancing divers before reforming behind them. Belle Mare Passe demands respect for its current and the need for proper drift diving technique, but rewards these skills with one of the most dynamic and marine-rich dives available on Mauritius's eastern coast. The pass creates diving conditions that are fundamentally different from calm lagoon sites, offering the kind of current-driven excitement that experienced divers actively seek.