Torizaki Ohanabatake

Torizaki Ohanabatake (通り崎・お花畑) is a boat-dive site at Toi, Izu, on the west coast of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka, intermediate and above, with rare strong current from early spring to early summer and the best visibility on north-east to east winds. It is the most colourful site in the Toi and Yagisawa area, with soft corals and whip corals growing from 1–2 m down to 45 m on a slope that steepens offshore, and it can be combined with a circuit to the large wreck or Wreck I. Anemones above 10 m hold anemonefish and anemone shrimps, the rock at around 20 m has red frogfish, seahorses and weedy scorpionfish among schooling anthias, and at 30 m there are pipefish, sakura anthias mixed with other anthias, and John Dory in winter, with tropical visitors such as ornate ghost pipefish, batfish and trumpetfish from autumn; fin kicks need care to avoid breaking the soft coral.

Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.

• Hilgendorf's SaucordHelicolenus hilgendorfiiReported here · unconfirmed
• Izu ScorpionfishScorpaena neglectaReported here · unconfirmed