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Ayvalik is drawing a growing number of scuba divers to its 24 dive sites, split between northern and southern zones along the coastline. It is a district of Balikesir province on Türkiye's northern Aegean coast facing the Greek island of Lesbos.
The district is known in particular for its red coral colonies, which local officials describe as one of the few concentrations of the species found worldwide. Stony corals, sea urchins and hani fish are also present in the area, contributing to what officials describe as a biodiverse underwater environment.
The 24 sites operate year-round.
Ayvalik Mayor Mesut Ergin said the district includes the Ayvalik Islands Nature Park, which spans 22 islands, and that the municipality is working to expand the number of dive points available.
He said the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks has installed reef structures at 50 locations to protect the seabed, and that the municipality is supporting seagrass meadow conservation projects in partnership with the TURMEPA marine environment association and Istanbul University.
Ayvalik Chamber of Commerce head Ali Ucar said the district recorded tourism occupancy rates above 90 percent this season, with activity particularly high in August. He said diving tourism, like gastronomy-based tourism, can be conducted throughout the year, and that new sport-diving locations have opened with special permission from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Ucar said that after roughly three years of preparatory work, permits were granted to dive at a historic shipwreck believed to date to the Byzantine era. He added that dive schools operating in the area are seeking to establish further dive points.
Kubilay Kilic, owner and instructor at the Prodivers Ayvalik dive school, said about 20,000 people dived in the district this summer season.
Fellow instructor Berk Yalimer said a new site was added to the area's diving offerings this year, noting that the district's underwater tourism continues to expand.
Unal Unsal, a diver from Istanbul who traveled to the district for advanced dive training, described seeing red corals, moray eels and crustaceans during dives, saying the experience felt "like another planet, a separate world."
Yusuf Ziya Albas, a diver from Izmir, said he dived to a depth of 30 meters during his visit.
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