![[Carol's Dive Log] Northern Taiwan Dive Site – Yingge Rock: A Special Ocean Cleanup Dive to Remove Fishing Lures](/_images/ec8393c2b283-1440w.webp)
Toward the end of this year's dive season and throughout the winter diving period, we made a total of six dives here with Divemaster Ah-Jia, always heading out on a 180° bearing and returning on 0°.
Back in 2019, by late September the Northeast Coast was almost entirely undiveable. On one particular day, with the wind and waves picking up a bit, I was already quietly wondering whether we'd be able to dive at all — when Hui-ge, the proprietor of the Northeast Coast Inn where we rented our gear and scuba tanks, gave a wave of his hand and said: "Go check out the northern dive sites — Shicheng and Yingge Rock! You can still dive there through October."
Diving Yingge Rock for the First Time
So, with hopeful hearts, we drove nearly 30 minutes south. Divemaster Ah-Jia chose Yingge Rock as our northern dive site because the conditions were calmer there. Standing on shore and looking out to sea, I was delighted to spot Turtle Island in the distance. When I asked about it, I learned that just a little further on you'd be in Yilan — a completely different geographic position from Longdong Bay. To me, it felt like discovering a whole new world, and I was over the moon. I couldn't wait to see what the underwater scenery would look like compared to Longdong Bay.
Yingge Rock did not disappoint. Its terrain is genuinely quite different from Longdong Bay — the seafloor is carpeted with rocks of all shapes and sizes, and with visibility that isn't crystal clear, everything takes on a cool, blue-grey hue that somehow feels distinctly refined. Yingge Rock also teems with fish, and there are moments when I watch the schools gliding through that soft, hazy blue and feel a sense of almost otherworldly vitality — making me think, wow, have I stumbled into a fairyland? (The above is purely personal impression, of course.)
Yingge Rock isn't just about the fish. What makes it particularly special is the presence of small lobster tucked away in the rocky crevices — something you don't often see elsewhere. Instructor You-You even spotted a lobster over 30 cm long, though unfortunately only she saw it and none of us managed a photo. The marine life here is rich overall: sea snakes, octopus, schools of fish, and more. I also spotted here the legendary creature I'd heard about at the Xianglian dive site — the golden sea cucumber (Stichopus horrens, reference: https://reurl.cc/gvAo6R) — although at the time it had curled its body up and looked more like a nudibranch.
During a late-December dive here, I had just finished photographing a nudibranch when I turned around to find dozens of enormous red sea bream — over 50 to 60 cm long — sweeping past me. They were so close that all I could make out were fish heads and eyes flashing by right in front of my face. My first thought was: what on earth is that?! Am I hallucinating? The moment I realized they were large fish, I frantically tried to signal my dive buddy to turn around and look, and scrambled to get it on record. It wasn't until I'd already taken two or three shots that it hit me — what was I thinking? This is a school of fish! I should be filming, not shooting stills! Thankfully, I did manage to get some video in the end — proof of just how completely stunned I was in that moment.
Yingge Rock has one more unique specialty that you simply won't find anywhere else — wooden fishing lures!
Yingge Rock's One-of-a-Kind Specialty: Wooden Fishing Lures!
Yingge Rock is also a well-known fishing spot on land, with anglers lined up in clusters along the shore. The wooden fishing lures they use as bait often end up drifting to the seafloor for various reasons, becoming marine debris. On one particular dive — I'm not even sure how it started — beginning with Instructor You-You picking up some marine debris, we all ended up collecting wooden lures. Every diver had their hands full, yet the seafloor was still littered with them — we couldn't possibly get them all. But the more we picked up, the more fun it became, and the more energized we felt. We completely forgot about the 18°C water, and nearly drifted into the fishing zone in our lure-collecting frenzy. Looking back, what we did that day was less of a dive and more of an ocean cleanup. Divemaster Ah-Jia even summed up the day perfectly: "Yingge Rock Lure Valley — diver spirit runs hotter than the water!!" I thought that was spot-on. Ha!
Every time we've come to Yingge Rock, the conditions back at Longdong Bay that day have been rough or the weather poor, leaving us quietly wondering — can we even dive? But each time we arrive at Yingge Rock, we're pleasantly surprised to find it far calmer, sometimes even sunny. I'm truly grateful for Yingge Rock as a diving gem — when the wind and waves at the end of the season or in winter aren't ideal, it gives us somewhere to quench that diver's thirst. If I had to sum up my impression of the Yingge Rock dive site, I keep coming back to something Divemaster Ah-Jia once said about it: Go just a little further south, and quench what's longing inside.
Dive Guide: Divemaster Ah-Jia
Carol's Dive Log: 2019/9/24, 12/14, 12/21
Note: The experience shared above reflects personal impressions only.
The Yingge Rock dive site (it was overcast and drizzling that day, though you can't tell from the photos — by the time we arrived, the sky had cleared up)
Turtle Island is clearly visible from shore
Diving into Yingge Rock — the seafloor is blanketed with rocks of every shape and size
There's a high chance of spotting small lobster at Yingge Rock
A beautiful golden sea cucumber spotted at the northern dive site
A gorgeous golden sea cucumber — that day the lens had fogged up, giving the shot an unexpectedly radiant, glowing quality! (A reminder to myself: don't leave the camera in direct sunlight when you surface, or you'll end up with a foggy lens every time.)
Me — with my notoriously poor eye for spotting critters — finding a beautiful little nudibranch (about 3 cm) all on my own for the first time. Had to document it!
A wonderfully unique heart shape
A fellow diver triumphantly raises the wooden lures they collected — as if they'd just conquered the world
Wooden fishing lures — the signature specialty of northern dive site Yingge Rock
I left this footage completely unedited on purpose, to capture the chaos and excitement of the moment (hence the rather embarrassingly rapid breathing). I spotted the amberjack and desperately tried to ring my bell — but couldn't get it to make a sound. I turned around and couldn't grab anyone's attention. In a panic, I resorted to taking photos first as documentation, all while desperately wishing everyone else could see what I was seeing. My hands were completely all over the place. Thankfully, I eventually managed to grab Min-Xiong's attention, and once I knew someone else had seen it too, I finally calmed down enough to get a proper video~
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