Casamance Estuary

In Senegal's lush southern region, the Casamance River meets the Atlantic in a maze of mangrove channels and sheltered bays that support a unique brackish-water diving experience unlike anything else in West Africa. Juvenile bull sharks use the estuary as a nursery, gliding through murky green water among submerged mangrove roots, while enormous sawfish — nearly extinct in most of their former range — are occasionally encountered here in one of their last West African strongholds. The Casamance's protected status and relative inaccessibility have preserved remarkable biodiversity, rewarding adventurous divers with sightings that are impossible to find anywhere else on the continent.