Magnetic Island is a popular destination off Townsville for day trips or an extended stay. The island has many sheltered bays that are great to snorkel or dive, as they have a surprising amount of coral and some great marine life. Florence Bay, Arthur Bay, Alma Bay, Nelly Bay and Geoffrey Bay are all popular dive sites with a good variety of hard and soft corals in depths to 10 metres.

The coral gardens in these bays are home to a wide range of reef fish and also a good place to see stingrays, crayfish, moray eels, nudibranchs, wobbegong sharks and the occasional epaulette shark. In Geoffrey Bay divers can also explore the wreck of the Moltke, a 50 metre long three-mast barque scuttled in 1911. The wreck rests in 8 metres, 100 metres off the beach, and is covered in corals and fish.