Marine Ecology and Coral ID Course

The Marine Ecology and Coral ID specialty runs 6 to 12 hours and is open to participants from age 6 — the lowest minimum age of any course at the centre. Equipment is included. The course covers ocean composition and marine species identification.

On the south coast of São Miguel, the species encountered across their dive sites are varied enough to make species ID genuinely useful: the Ponta da Cozinha site page alone lists Chromis limbata, Thalassoma pavo, Serranus atricauda, Sparisoma cretense, Labrus bergylta, Dasyatis pastinaca, Pseudocaranx dentex, Sphyraena viridensis, Seriola rivoliana, and Pomatomus saltator by scientific name. Knowing what you're looking at changes the dive.

This is listed under SSI's curriculum and is separate from the Science of Diving specialty — both are available at Azores Sub.