Trip Report Belize Aggressor III Trip Report – April 21-28

[Trailboss123]

Very nice, day-by-day guide to the 'work flow' of the dive trip. Should be quite useful to people considering the trip. Couple of observations:

1.) I'm surprised at the lack of 'fishiness' - not that my 2015 trip aboard the then Sun Dancer 2 out of Belize was swarming with fish, but it had decent fishiness. My main comparison to Bonaire (which I last hit in 2014, I think), was more variety of sizable grouper (whereas in Bonaire, if it's bigger than a graysby, it's a tiger grouper - from my dives there), and of course reef sharks (which I never saw in Bonaire). I've yet to see the Caribbean dive that matches the fishiness of my dive on Snapper Ledge out of Key Largo in 2013. Closest I've been to being unable to see the reef for the fish.

2.) I don't understand why they spent 2 1/2 days (was it?) diving Turneffe. IIRC, our only diving there was the last 2 dives on that last, half-day, of diving en-route back to port.

Sounds like you had a fine time, though it didn't top your favorites list. Wonder if that'd have changed if you'd only had 2 dives around Turneffe like we did?

Congrat.s on the Iron Diver award (for doing all the dives); the medallions make cool trip mementos.

Richard.

@drrich2 - I was also at odds and confused with the lack of fish, as were the other patrons on the boat. Maybe something is happening and upsetting the marine life balance? I believe @Ironborn had a similar experience recently?
You are correct, we spent almost half of the trip on Turneffe Atoll reefs on the front end and back end of the trip. Since I have nothing to compare it to, I just assumed that was the norm. It was our experience. I wish we would have spent additional time out at the Lighthouse Reef dive sites.

We did have a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire week. I hope I didn't come off as overly negative.

 

[Dogbowl]

We were on the BAIV one week before @Trailboss123 and had a very similar experience. Turneffe to Lighthouse back to Turneffe. Nice patches/forests of coral on some dives but not very fishy at all.

 

[scubafanatic]

The absence of fish or sharks is nothing new, I spent a week in Belize back in Summer 2011 (Sun Dancer II) and fish were essentially non existent, nice reefs/walls but almost devoid of any swimming animals, I think it's just been totally fished out by the locals.

 

[Snoweman]

I dove Placencia six years ago. I was really depressed about the condition of the reefs. The dive masters did their best to get rid of the lionfish, but there were many of them. I'm not saying this was the only problem, but I have noticed that reefs that are vibrant have very few of the invasive (but delicious) little b@st@rds. I think pollution plays a big factor with Belize reefs, too.

 

[Charred]

I am doing BAIV this fall. My first live aboard.

I dont like hearing only the lighthouse dives are worth it. Why isnt the boat just spending the week at the best sites?

This is baffling to me and has me wanting to cancel.

 

[Trailboss123]

I am doing BAIV this fall. My first live aboard.

I dont like hearing only the lighthouse dives are worth it. Why isnt the boat just spending the week at the best sites?

This is baffling to me and has me wanting to cancel.

Don't cancel. You will still have a great time. Part of the reason for not staying out at Lighthouse Reef all week is logistics of travel. There are 5 1/2 dive days total. 3.5 of those were spent at the nicer reefs of Lighthouse and 2 days on Turneffe reefs. One day on the front end heading out to Lighthouse and one day at the end coming back to Belize City.

 

[outofofficebrb]

@drrich2I hope I didn't come off as overly negative.

Thanks for sharing your trip report! Different strokes for different folks - everyone's conclusions and impressions are different and you are always entitled to have your own. I don't see it as being overly negative. In fact, I am skeptical of any review or trip report that doesn't have anything negative mentioned. Since you are willing to go on another liveaboard....Let me know if you ever want me to enable you on an itinerary or boat.

 

[Ironborn]

@drrich2 - I was also at odds and confused with the lack of fish, as were the other patrons on the boat. Maybe something is happening and upsetting the marine life balance? I believe @Ironborn had a similar experience recently?
You are correct, we spent almost half of the trip on Turneffe Atoll reefs on the front end and back end of the trip. Since I have nothing to compare it to, I just assumed that was the norm. It was our experience. I wish we would have spent additional time out at the Lighthouse Reef dive sites.

We did have a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire week. I hope I didn't come off as overly negative.

@Trailboss123. I was glad to read your report and compare your BAIII experience with mine. See my trip report from November 2017, on which you commented when I posted it at that time.

I think that your trip went noticeably better than mine for a few reasons, but many of your observations are still quite close to mine, even down to the level of your assessment of specific dive sites.

The main problems with my trip were that the captain ran the boat aground on a sandbar and a generator failure that caused us to miss four dives and delayed our eventual arrival at Lighthouse Reef. It sounds like you did not have any problems of that kind.

You also spent more time at Lighthouse Reef than we did (only eight dives), and it seems like we both found Lighthouse Reef significantly more enjoyable than Turneffe. My trip would have been much better if we had spent more time at Lighthouse Reef and less time at Turneffe.

Did you follow the guides or just go your own way with your wife? As a solo traveler with no buddy, I followed the guides at first but soon gave up on one of the guides who was both useless and abrasive; I ended up joining another group as a fifth wheel whenever that guide was in the water. I thought that the often underwhelming marine life observations may have been due to the quality of the guide services, but your report instead suggests to me that the area might just not be that "fishy."

Your assessments of certain dive sites are quite close to mine, and some of your creature encounters, such as those with the reef sharks, green morays, and octopi, reminded me of some of my own encounters as well. I would agree that Quebrada and Half Moon Caye Wall were fantastic, and Sandy Slope, Grand Bogue, and Amberhead were so-so or "meh." We also found Johnny's Wrench underwhelming, but not to the point of asking the captain to move the boat.

 

[Trailboss123]

@Trailboss123. I was glad to read your report and compare your BAIII experience with mine. See my trip report from November 2017, on which you commented when I posted it at that time.

I think that your trip went noticeably better than mine for a few reasons, but many of your observations are still quite close to mine, even down to the level of your assessment of specific dive sites.

The main problems with my trip were that the captain ran the boat aground on a sandbar and a generator failure that caused us to miss four dives and delayed our eventual arrival at Lighthouse Reef. It sounds like you did not have any problems of that kind.

You also spent more time at Lighthouse Reef than we did (only eight dives), and it seems like we both found Lighthouse Reef significantly more enjoyable than Turneffe. My trip would have been much better if we had spent more time at Lighthouse Reef and less time at Turneffe.

Did you follow the guides or just go your own way with your wife? As a solo traveler with no buddy, I followed the guides at first but soon gave up on one of the guides who was both useless and abrasive; I ended up joining another group as a fifth wheel whenever that guide was in the water. I thought that the often underwhelming marine life observations may have been due to the quality of the guide services, but your report instead suggests to me that the area might just not be that "fishy."

Your assessments of certain dive sites are quite close to mine, and some of your creature encounters, such as those with the reef sharks, green morays, and octopi, reminded me of some of my own encounters as well. I would agree that Quebrada and Half Moon Caye Wall were fantastic, and Sandy Slope, Grand Bogue, and Amberhead were so-so or "meh." We also found Johnny's Wrench underwhelming, but not to the point of asking the captain to move the boat.

We followed the guide on the first check out dive of the week only. He did a very poor job, so we just did our own dives after that. We generally tried to be the first ones into the water and put a good distance between ourselves and the rest of the group who followed the dive guide around. That made for leisurely and enjoyable dives. On a couple occasions, we had another diver tag along with us when his wife decided to sit out a dive. I think our week was probably how they run the trip normally- assuming no adverse situations come up like on your trip. I am glad we didn't spend any more time at the Turneffe reefs than we did and I would have been happy if we hadn't spent any time there at all. I do think it is possible for them to run the entire week out at Lighthouse, if they wanted to. Maybe the last two morning dives at Turneffe only- just to be back in Belize City at the appointed time on Friday.

 

[Ironborn]

We followed the guide on the first check out dive of the week only. He did a very poor job, so we just did our own dives after that..

@Trailboss123. By any chance, was that guide the male photographer with long black hair and Native American features? If it was the same guide that we had, several guests and I found him both useless and abrasive.

In contrast, the other guide, a black female, was great, and I often had her to myself, since almost everyone else avoided the guides and did their own thing. She was very thorough with her fish ID and used her slate to write down the names of the various species that we saw during the dive.