Bahamas
Best overall months to dive: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Nov, Dec
The Bahamas is an archipelago of roughly 700 islands and cays spread across the shallow banks east of Florida. Shark diving is the marquee draw: Tiger Beach off West End, Grand Bahama for tiger and lemon sharks, and Bimini for great hammerheads in winter. Beyond sharks there are reefs, wall dives off New Providence and Andros, and blue holes — Dean's Blue Hole on Long Island is among the deepest known at about 202m. In July 2011 the government amended the Fisheries Resources Act to ban commercial shark fishing and the sale, import and export of shark products across roughly 630,000 sq km of national waters, creating one of the world's larger shark sanctuaries.