Scuba Diving Destinations with the Healthiest Marine Environment — 2017 Readers Choice Awards

Our annual Top 100 Readers Choice Awards are based on your real-world dives, and they let us take that journey right along with you. Since 1994, we’ve been presenting our readers’ picks for the best diving in the world in our annual Top 100 Readers Choice Awards. It’s a feature that we love to put together, because we consider the results of our annual Top 100 survey a way for magazine readers, fans and online followers to share their most remarkable moments underwater. Below you'll find the winning destinations for the Healthiest Marine Environment.

How the Winners are Chosen:
Thousands of Scuba Diving subscribers and online users rated their experiences at dive destinations in a variety of categories on a scale from 1 to 5. Final scores are an average of the numerical scores awarded. A minimum number of responses was required for a destination to be included in these ratings.

Caribbean and Atlantic

Turks & Caicos

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1. Turks and Caicos

2. Bahamas

3. Bonaire

4. Cayman Islands

No other Caribbean dive destination packs as many punches as Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac with their combined 365 sites — a mix of wrecks, reefs and sheer walls. Plus, visibility on all three extends up to 150 feet, seeming almost unlimited some days. On top of that, the islands are home to experts in a host of underwater pursuits, from image-making to technical diving. Because nearly every resident counts scuba as a pursuit, the menu of what to do underwater in the Cayman Islands can widen to include even more options, from freediving to advanced DPV adventures.

5. Mexico

North America

British Columbia

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1. British Columbia

2. Florida

Between the Sunshine State’s 8,436 miles of coastline — jumping-off points to wrecks, reefs and pier dives — and the rivers and caves of its interior, you can pretty much just throw a dart at a map to decide where to put in next. Moreover, thanks to the Gulf Stream heating up the Atlantic coast and the shallow, easily warmed Gulf of Mexico, the salt water is as warm as that of the Caribbean — and yet, it can be reached by car for those willing to road-trip south.