Sainte Marie and Ile aux Nattes

Use an appropriately qualified, operating scuba center and request the specific dive briefing: depth, current, boat traffic, entry/exit, weather alternative, buddy procedure, oxygen and first-aid readiness, emergency communications, closest medical assessment and evacuation means. Bora publishes sites reaching about 30 m, but not every diver has the qualification for them. The presence of wrecks is not evidence of permission to penetrate an overhead space. Do not pick up historical artifacts, corals or marine life. For freediving, shallow-water blackout is a separate risk and no dedicated local professional supervision was verified. No solo breath-hold diving. Check current daily sea warnings, not only seasonal averages.

Medical infrastructure and ambulance service outside Madagascar's major centers can be limited, according to government travel advisories. A staffed, accepting recompression chamber on Sainte-Marie was not independently confirmed. DAN advises immediate clinical evaluation rather than directing an injured diver toward an unverified chamber. A dive center should have emergency oxygen, a working communication method, and an explicit pathway to local hospital assessment and possible onward medical evacuation. Discuss malaria prophylaxis and other tropical-health measures with a travel clinician; use bite precautions and safe drinking water. Travel insurance should explicitly cover scuba/freediving at planned depths, remote boating and medical repatriation.

Cetamada, based in Sainte-Marie, describes training guides under Malagasy marine-megafauna observation regulations and publishes distinct observation charters. Choose a guide that can explain the applicable approach distances, vessel limits and no-water-entry restrictions, including the prohibition on tourist swimming with humpbacks. No wildlife interaction is guaranteed. Avoid chasing animals, touching turtles or coral, feeding fish, anchoring on reefs, harvesting shells or entering sensitive nesting habitat. At sand islets and mangroves, ask about community permissions, designated landing and local conservation rules; the specific legal boundary and fees were not validated in this research. Leave wreck artifacts undisturbed.