【Carol's Diving Diary】Taiwan Northeast Coast Dive Site – Mosquito Pit (Hemei Street / 83.9K): The Adorably Charming "Beginner's Village"

When I was learning to dive at Yachao Diving Club, they had set up a club structure where senior members and instructors would take us to explore different dive sites based on our level. For us, Mosquito Pit was just like the beginner's village in an online RPG — it's where we started fighting monsters (encountering marine life) and leveling up (training our neutral buoyancy).

About the Entry and Exit Points at Mosquito Pit

The site is located roughly halfway between Longdong South Mouth Park and the Hemei community, at the 83.9K marker. You can spot a gap in the guardrail on the left side of the road; head downhill to the T-junction, turn left and follow the road all the way to the nine-hole pool, which marks the entry point (geographic information sourced from Northeast Coast Divers Inn https://inn.divers.com.tw/hello-world/).

Mosquito Pit doesn't offer breathtaking underwater spectacles. What it does have are adorable Clownfish, common scorpionfish, and colorful schools of small fish. It distills the charming, small-scale marine life most commonly found in Longdong Bay into one compact, utterly endearing dive site. No matter when we dive here, the life we encounter is always vibrant and full of energy.

Mosquito Pit has three dive routes. The photo above shows the main entry and exit point. For detailed route information, please refer to the map drawn by senior diver Ko Chuan: https://reurl.cc/mdeN5A

After entering from the main entry point and swimming in at a 120-degree bearing, you'll reach the site's most iconic feature — the "Fish Feeding Area." This is a large reef rock covered in coral, where colorful schools of fish of all kinds gather among swaying coral branches. And of course, the ever-popular Clownfish (Nemo) are there in abundance.

Whenever Instructor Ah-Da brought us newbies down to Mosquito Pit, his favorite move was to line us up along the reef — one person per spot, like radishes planted in a row — and take photos of us. It gave the whole thing a very "try dive" feel, with a kind of wholesome, first-timer naivety about it. And truthfully, we really were green back then. We didn't know a thing about marine life, and every skill was still a work in progress. Even so, the Fish Feeding Area was more than enough to blow my mind. I couldn't take my eyes off it every single time — I always wanted to stay a little longer, to watch how the Clownfish lived their lives there, and to find out what else was hiding beneath the sea anemones.

Mosquito Pit: A Must-Visit Northeast Coast Dive Site for Beginners

Whether it's because I spent my beginner days here, or simply because Mosquito Pit is easier to enter and exit than most other sites — with a maximum dive depth of just over 10 m — diving here always feels especially reassuring. Even the marine life you encounter feels particularly approachable, and you get the sense that they feel the same way about you.

I remember once when the instructor took us to look for cleaner shrimp. One little creature actually hopped onto the instructor and started doing its cleaning work, then made its way along our outstretched arms one by one. Instructor Ah-Da told us: "Among all the cleaner shrimp at Mosquito Pit, this one is the least afraid of people. It'll groom you — you just have to find it first." That fearless little cleaner shrimp was already fascinating enough to me, but what I found even more remarkable was how Instructor Ah-Da could tell that particular cleaner shrimp apart from all the others… Because to me, every cleaner shrimp looks exactly the same!

Same Mosquito Pit, Very Different Dive Guide Styles

Setting aside that unsolvable mystery — since many club members serve as dive guides at Mosquito Pit, we had the chance to dive with a range of different guides. Each brought their own style, and from each one, we learned and saw something different.

Take Instructor Ah-Da, for example. Whether on land or underwater, he constantly reminded us to refine our diving technique, maintain good neutral buoyancy, avoid disturbing the marine ecosystem, and always keep safety in mind — for us and for them. Through Ah-Da, I learned the art of diving in harmony with the ocean.

Eagle-Eye Ah-Jia had a knack for spotting marine critters that were doing an excellent job of hiding: camouflaged crabs tucked away in plain sight, Frogfish pretending to be rocks, and all manner of gorgeous nudibranchs. Through Ah-Jia, we discovered the sheer splendor of the underwater world.

Shell guru James made sure we never walked past something rare without noticing it. I remember a dive in 2018 when James was guiding. He pointed at a red coral and was very insistent that I look closely. I really gave it my all — stared with everything I had — but all I could see was red coral. I even thought maybe he wanted me to appreciate its structure and beauty.

Fortunately, James had his camera with him. Back on shore, he showed us the photos and explained: "This is a Mitra mitra (Episcopal Miter shell). It averages between 13 and 57 mm in size and lives at depths between 10 and 37 m. Finding one on coral at roughly 10 m depth here on the Northeast Coast — one measuring 50 mm long — is truly rare. Anyone who spotted it was very lucky." After hearing his explanation, I felt genuinely fortunate to have crossed paths with it. I'm so grateful to James for the commentary — without it, I would have blissfully missed such a rare ocean treasure. Thank you, James, for opening our eyes to the beauty and rarity of shells.

It's because of all these experiences diving with different guides that the most important lesson I learned in the "Beginner's Village" was this: in diving, the instructor matters — but so does the dive guide. Different guides lead you into different underwater worlds, and help you see the ocean's many distinct wonders.

I love Mosquito Pit. It's a dive site that lets you truly unwind — much like returning to the beginner's village in an online game after you've leveled up high enough. Going back to fight the early small monsters again brings you right back to where it all began. So when you've grown a little weary chasing rare marine creatures, or you want to take a breather from exploring all those unusual dive sites, perhaps it's worth dropping into Mosquito Pit for a dip. Enjoy the ease of recreational diving, spend some time with those ordinary-yet-charming marine critters, and recapture the beautiful, wide-eyed wonder of when you first started diving.

And of course, if you're lucky enough, Mosquito Pit might have a big surprise in store for you — just like our dive buddy Pei-Pei, who encountered a magnificent baitball of tiny fish!

A baitball of small fish filmed by dive buddy Pei-Pei at Mosquito Pit in 2019 — and apparently, this was only half of it

Related links:

• Carol's Diving Diary Facebook Page

• 【Carol's Diving Diary】The Cradle of Beginner Divers in Northern Taiwan – Longdong No. 3: The "Road to Paradise" for Diving Newcomers

• 【Carol's Diving Diary】Love at First Sight with the Northeast Coast of Taiwan: Where My Passion for Diving Began

• 【Carol's Diving Diary】Northeast Coast Dive Site – Yingge Rock: A Special Ocean Cleanup Dive to Remove Ghost Nets

• Overview of Taiwan's Diving Environment – Northern Region

• Must-See Creatures for Underwater Photography on Taiwan's Northeast Coast – Gold Medalist Marco