Blue Bay Marine Park, Mauritius
4.0 (521 reviews) Spent Ranking #2 in Grand Port District Bodies of Water • Reefs
Great snorkeling spot
What an pleasant experience! Who ever said the coral is dead obviously does not know what live coral looks like. At least 80%is still alive and there are only small patches that are damaged. Even though it was overcast almost the entire week we were there, we were still able to see quite a lot. There are all types of fish, shells(big ones), LIVE coral and the guys that went the previous day even saw turtles. The oil spill did not seem to affect it to much(not sure why it looked like before) but the spill happened on the other side of the island. Agreed there are better places to snorkel in the world but this is defenately on my top 10! Well worth a visit. Regarding the ankers damaging the coral, it seems the boats have made a designated area to lover their ancers to avoid any more damage to the coral. Would love to go back when the weather plays along.
Address
Blue Bay Link Road, Mahebourg.
Current local date and time now
Monday, May 13, 2024, 1:22
User Ratings
4.0 based on (521 reviews)
Reviews
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3Juma 5:00 PM Aug 21, 2022
Bay:5 stars Corals: bleaching, but recovering, boat owners: greedy sources of danger
Wr visited Blue Bay during a tour through the South-East of Mauritius. Blue Bay Marine Park itself is a natural heritage and protected by the Republic of Mauritius. We went for a short snorkelling trip and the amount of colourful fish was amazing. Unfortunately, most corals were bleached out because of man made climate change, but there are still some colourful corals and some even get colourful again, because the bay is protected. The bay is protected by the great reef around Mauritius and two islands in the bay, so snorkelling conditions are great. But there also is a huge problem: when entering the beach, a horde(!) of boat owners gather around you to sell extremely expensive rides to the snorkelling zones, because it is forbidden to swim to two zones by your own. Authorities say, it would be too dangerous to swim there. But there is only one source of danger: all the boats. If you are a decent swimmer, there o isn't any problem to walk the beach westway to swim along to the corals and even to the reef. One zone is entirely reachable by beach and you don't need boats. But if you want to go by boat, you have to negotiate with the boat owners. Some want 3.000 rupees and that is way too much! The trip isn't worth more than 500 rupees andjehw Mauritian authorities should forbid those boat tours entirely, because the boats aren't good for thw corals and it would be much better to have two or three lifeguard boats in the bay and give people the chance to swim along to the corals. It is a natural heritage and if the bay will not be protected more (no more boats!) there wont be anything left to inherit.
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3Natalie M 5:00 PM Mar 3, 2020
Amazing area, but sad (global warming effects)
Amazing area to visit, but snorkeling shows the sad reality that we are living in at the moment, with global warming. A lot of the Blue Bay Lagoon's coral is dead or dying, though there is still a large number of fish. Happen to see two of the resident turtles in the lagoon, which is amazing. I understand speaking to a number of people at Shandrani, they are trying their best to grow coral and transfer the grown coral back to the reef. But it is going to take years for the area to recover. Please also be aware, the currents in the lagoon can be strong (so take into account with young children or adults that don't swim well)
