Hanauma Bay
Oahu, Hawaii · 1–4 m · park · ticketed days
The textbook managed snorkel: video brief, closed on Tuesdays, carrying-capacity experiments since the 1970s.
These sites are famous because they had to invent management. Typical rules below are historical patterns, not today’s permit sheet.
Go where a ranger talks. The silent “secret reef” is often a trampling experiment.
Points
Jellyfish Lake (Ongeim’l Tketau)
Palau · surface · lake · often closed/rotated
UNESCO Rock Islands; fins and sunscreen rules are strict, and the lake has closed when jellyfish or drought required it.
Tubbataha Reefs
Sulu Sea, PH · 5–30 m · park · Mar–Jun season
A no-structure, permit-only UNESCO site; etiquette is the liveaboard brief and a ranger station.
Great Barrier Reef (public pontoons)
Queensland, AU · 2–8 m · park · year-round, stinger season
GBRMPA zoning: green zones, stinger suits in summer, and a pontoon model that concentrates impact.
Bonaire National Marine Park
Bonaire · 2–20 m · often good · year-round
A shore-tag system and a long no-anchor culture; the Caribbean’s etiquette laboratory.
Raja Ampat marine park
West Papua, ID · 2–30 m · park · Oct–Apr common
PIN entry and village rules; manta sanctuaries with distance codes.
Ras Mohammed
Sinai, Egypt · 2–30 m · park · year-round, windy days
A national park at the Red Sea’s tip; the Yolanda wreck and reef both depend on no-take rules.
Heron Island
GBR, AU · 1–6 m · research cay · year-round
A research-station island where etiquette is also science logistics.
Tips
- Pay the PIN / tag — It is the park’s budget for rangers.
- Ask about closures — Jellyfish Lake and turtle beaches close. That is success.
- Night photos — No strobe in a turtle’s face. Parks are writing this down now.
- Village briefings — In Raja and Palau the “park” may be a community. Listen twice.
The famous etiquette sites are famous because they were damaged first. Pay the tag.