Yagisawa Hanarejima

Yagisawa Hanarejima (八木沢・離れ島) is a boat-dive site under 5 minutes from Yagisawa harbour at Toi, Izu, on the west coast of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka, from beginner level, though it is exposed to swell and can close in west to south winds. It is the inner bay in front of the Yamatokan hotel, opened in 1990, with a hexagonal artificial reef at its centre, the small island to the west and a soft-coral zone to the east, shallow and calm enough for a second dive. The island's wall carries soft coral, two crevices and a small cave just wide enough for one diver, with sweepers and cardinalfish inside and tropical drift-ins in autumn; a gravel slope from 10 m holds wrasse and pipefish, whip corals with ghost gobies and decorator crabs begin at 20 m on the sand, and seahorses, red frogfish, sea moths and John Dory in winter are found around the rocks, with sea urchins requiring good buoyancy.

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