Jackson's Bar: Strong Currents,
Manta Rays & Pelagic Action

Jackson’s Bar is one of Havelock Island’s top advanced dive sites, located 19 kilometers northeast in the waters of Ritchie’s Archipelago. Named after Jackson, the brother of divemaster Johnny (of Johnny’s Gorge fame), this underwater plateau is where experienced divers go to see large pelagic marine life up close.

A flat rocky shelf slopes from 25m to beyond 30m, and strong perpendicular currents push nutrients through the area. That combination draws in manta rays, eagle rays, reef sharks, and big schools of fish.

After a 45-60 minute boat ride through crystal waters, you descend into a different world. Jackson’s Bar is not like the shallow coral gardens most visitors know-this is open ocean diving at its finest.

As you drop through the blue water, the rocky plateau materializes below at around 25 meters. The first thing you notice: movement everywhere. Schools of Bengal snappers form massive, shifting clouds. Barracudas slice through in hunting formations. Tuna patrol the edges.

The perpendicular currents that challenge your buoyancy are the same force that brings the big players here. Manta rays glide in for cleaning, their 3-4 meter wingspans casting shadows across the plateau. Eagle rays sweep past in groups. White-tip reef sharks rest on the sandy slopes below, occasionally rising for a closer look at curious divers.

At the edges of the plateau, cleaning stations buzz with activity-small cleaner wrasse and shrimp servicing massive groupers and cruising jacks. It is like watching a natural car wash, except underwater.