Animal Crossing: New Horizons Diving Guide and Sea Creatures List

Adventures in the deep blue sea.

Did you know that Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows you to swim and dive around the unexplored waters around your island where you’ll be able to find Sea Creatures that have been swimming around your island all this time as well as meet Pascal the otter.

So before we get to getting wet and wild we’re gonna need a Wet Suit which is required for us to start our waterside adventures.

Where to Buy the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Wet Suit

Here are the two ways one can get a Wet Suit:

  • The Horizontal-striped Wet Suit can be found at your closest Nook’s Cranny’s cabinet where you can buy it for 3,000 Bells.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Horizontal-Striped Wet Suit.
  • For the online experience, the Leaf-print Wet Suit can be bought via Nook Shopping’s Special Goods.
  • For the Nook Miles redemption route you can purchase the Nook Inc. Wet Suit for 800 Nook Miles. Do take note that for Nook Inc. Novelty items, they will always be mailed to you the following day you sign-in to the game.

How to Swim in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Now that we have our Wet Suit of choice, it’s time to start our adventures at sea.

First things first, don’t forget to wear your Wet Suit of choice by finding it in your inventory and selecting the “Wear” option.

You can also get some other swimming clothing equipment like the scuba mask which you can wear while swimming but unfortunately serve no purpose when it comes to Animal Crossing: New Horizons swimming and diving mechanics.

So let’s get our butts into the water and see where we go from there. So to enter the water you just need to press “A” when you’re next to the sea.

Here are your entry points for the water:

  • You can enter from the beach.
  • Jump from the pier.
  • Jump from the airport.
  • Jump from a rock.

For those who want to look a little flashy going into the sea with a front-flipping cannonball. Then you have to be sprinting by holding the “B” button and hit “A” just before you reach the end of your platform.

So Timmy will be the one giving you the tutorial on how you’re gonna use your new Wet Suit/s.

Swimming:

  • Pressing “A” allows you to do a breaststroke.
  • Holding “A” allows you to swim at a normal speed.
  • Holding the left joystick on your controller allows you to swim at a slow speed.
  • Rapidly pressing “A” on your controller allows you to swim at a high speed.
  • An important thing to note is that there is a swimming boundary indicated by a net.
  • Swam too far? Don’t worry, there’s a Rescue Service app from your Nook Phone just for that and they’ll even fly you back to your desired location on the island. It’ll cost 100 miles per rescue though so do take that into account.

Diving:

  • For diving you will need to press “Y” to dive. When you dive, you’ll be under the sea for about 10 seconds before automatically going back up the water for air.
  • You can press “Y” while underwater to resurface manually.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Sea Creatures

So a good way to spend some of your leisure time in the water would be to look for Sea Creatures that live beneath the ocean floor. The Sea Creatures you collect can be donated to the Museum or sold to Nook’s Cranny.

How to Catch Sea Creatures

To find a sea creature, be on the lookout for some bubbles or a shadow on the water surface and dive near it or on top of it. Be careful though as some of them can move and are sometimes real quick to boot.

If the shadow starts to run away, you can chase after it by tapping “A” while you’re below the water, and press “A” again when you’re over the shadow to capture the sea creature.

An important thing to note is that you can’t access your pocket while you’re out in the water except in the event wherein your pocket is full and you will need to swap out your newly-caught sea creature with another sea creature that’s occupying your pocket space. In the event where there is no sea creature in your pocket then you have no choice but to set it free.

You can manually release sea creatures you’ve caught but you need to go back to the shore and back on land in order to release them.

List of Sea Creatures

Sea CreaturePriceActive TimeSeasonality (North)Seasonality (South)
Abalone2,0004 p.m. – 9 a.m.June – JanuaryDecember – July
Acorn Barnacle600All DayAll YearAll Year
Chambered Nautilus1,8004 p.m. – 9 a.m.March – June, September – NovemberSeptember – December, March – May
Dungeness Crab1,900All DayNovember – MayMay – November
Firefly Squid1,4009 p.m. – 4 a.m.March – JuneSeptember – December
Flatworm7004 p.m. – 9 a.m.August – SeptemberFebruary – March
Gazami Crab2,200All DayJune – NovemberDecember – May
Giant Isopod12,0009 a.m. – 4 p.m., 9 p.m. – 4 a.m.July – OctoberJanuary – April
Gigas Giant Clam15,000Al DayMay – SeptemberNovember – March
Horseshoe Crab2,5009 p.m. – 4 a.m.July – SeptemberJanuary – March
Lobster4,500All DayApril – June, December – JanuaryOctober – December, June – July
Mantis Shrimp2,5004 p.m. – 9 a.m.All YearAll Year
Moon Jellyfish600All DayJuly – SeptemberJanuary – March
Mussel1,500All DayJune – DecemberDecember – June
Octopus1,200All DayAll YearAll Year
Oyster1,100All DaySeptember – FebruaryMarch – August
Pearl Oyster2,800All DayAll YearAll Year
Red King Crab8,000All DayNovember – MarchMay – September
Scallop1,200All DayAll YearAll Year
Sea Anemone500All DayAll YearAll Year
Sea Cucumber500All DayNovember – AprilMay – October
Sea Grapes900All DayJune – SeptemberDecember – March
Sea Pig10,0004 p.m. – 9 a.m.November – FebruaryMay – August
Sea Pineapple1,500All DayApril – AugustOctober – February
Sea Slug600All DayAll YearAll Year
Sea Star500All DayAll YearAll Year
Sea Urchin1,700All DayMay – SeptemberNovember – March
Seaweed600All DayOctober – JulyApril – January
Slate Pencil Urchin2,0004 p.m. – 9 a.m.May – SeptemberNovember – March
Snow Crab6,000All DayNovember – AprilMay – October
Spider Crab12,000All DayMarch – AprilSeptember – October
Spiny Lobster5,0009 p.m. – 4 a.m.October – DecemberApril – June
Spotted Garden Eel1,1004 a.m. – 9 p.m.May – OctoberNovember – April
Sweet Shrimp1,4004 p.m. – 9 a.m.September – FebruaryMarch – August
Tiger Prawn3,000All DayJune – SeptemberDecember – March
Turban Shell1,000All DayMarch – May, September – DecemberMach – June, September – November
Umbrella Octopus6,000All DayMarch – May, September – NovemberMarch – May, September – November
Vampire Squid10,0004 p.m. – 9 a.m.May – AugustNovember – February
Venus’ Flower Basket5,000All DayOctober – FebruaryApril – August
Whelk1,000All DayAll YearAll Year

Finding Pascal to Trade

Whenever you go looking for Sea Creatures and you find Scallops, then expect to find Pascal, a red otter who absolutely loves Scallops. He’ll appear nearby and will ask you to trade the Scallops you find for another item. He’ll only appear once a day though so he will only ask you for your first Scallop per day.

Pascal will give you DIY recipes for some very exquisite Mermaid Furniture, Pearls, and Mermaid clothing. I’m sure those of you who’ve dreamt of a mermaid-themed room will be prioritizing Scallop hunting.

For more about Animal Crossing: New Horizons you can check for them here.

Here are other notable guides from other games: