Diving Belize

[TURTLE696]

Thanks everyone.

 

[ssvirsky]

We are experienced and well-traveled divers, and dislike cattle boats (that is why Grand Turk is our favorite over Cayman Brac). Here cattle boats are the rule because that is what it takes to get to the atolls.

However, it really is a once in a lifetime experience, particularly if you have an appreciation for the geological events that created the formation. The other two dives on the atoll are lovely.

If you have never done it - do it. Otherwise, you are going to have to stay on the atolls to experience the quality of diving that you get with the other two dives.

S

 

[BigJetDriver]

We are heading to Belize in a couple of weeks and will be looking for photo-friendly dive operators. Can you suggest the good and also let us know who not to call.

We would also invite suggestions for dive spots.

Thanks much,
Lee

A great place is ProTech Belize on Ambergris Caye. They do not run cattle boats, give good personal attention, and the diving is great out there all along the island.

Try: www.protechbelize.com

Cheers!

 

[vladimir]

If the Aggressor is fully booked, try the Turneffe Island Lodge.

 

[ssvirsky]

Agree, we used them in February and they were great, slow was the pace (great for photos) and worked hard to find critters for you (I have never seen so many drums!). Their big boat was in the shop so dives to the atolls were with Amigos del Mar. They were cattle boats, and you were pretty much on your own.

 

[envirovannas]

Hi,

Just noticed your post... We had a great time staying on South Water Caye and diving with Hamanasi. While Hamanasi operates out of a resort on a mosquito-infested part of the coast, their boats will pick up divers on the Caye. The great thing about this arrangement is that you are staying in a fanastic setting right on the barrier reef. In addition to dives very close by the Caye, they also did a 3-tank dive to Glover's Atoll.

Not spectacular, but very nice, very easy diving, especially at Glover's. On the one hand, Hamanasi was an efficient operation. On the other. their DMs betrayed little interest in the marine life, you were pretty much on your own wrt noticing the interesting ocean life.

Hope this helps,
Rich

 

[Gaz]

Don't Dive the Blue Hole. It wasn't worth the 185$ plus 10$ for the Area tax. It might be up to $40 now. I just got back from there. And, I wish I would have never went on that trip.


Belize’s Great Blue Hole
IS IT REALLY WORTH DIVING ?
By Gaz Cooper www.DiveBelize.com

This is a question that is repeatedly asked on the many dive message boards across the internet and the answers it receives is sometimes misleading depending on the experience of the diver whom answers.
This article is written to provide an unbiased factual information source based on the reaction of hundreds of divers that I have had the opportunity to speak to after diving the Blue Hole.

Since I am a dive operator here in Belize, there will be some readers that say, of course I will promote the Blue Hole in a positive manner since I make money from the sale of trips to the Blue Hole, but the truth of the matter is, while I do offer the Blue Hole trip to all my visiting divers I do not run trips myself to the Blue Hole, I use another operator and I actually make more money by not promoting the Blue Hole trip however I aggresivly promote it as I personally think for 90% of divers it’s a great experinece a great dive and a great addition to diving Belize.

The Blue Hole is 1000ft across and 460ft deep and forms an almost perfect circle. It has been a favorite fishing ground for belizean fishermen for hundreds of years and in 1970 it was introduced to the public by Jacque Cousteau whom on his boat the Calypso charted the Blue Hole for the first time and highlighted its wonders in a tv documentary.

The Blue Hole is unique in many ways, one being that it is the only Blue Hole in the world that can be seen with the naked eye from outer space.
It is a fact that thousands of years ago the Blue Hole was a cave that was above sea level, the reason we know this is because Stalagtites and stalamites cannot form underwater, and can only grow with the constant drip drip that can be seen happening to the stalagtites in many above ground caves systems today.
When you consider that it takes more than 100 years for a Stalagtite to grow just one inch, its a spectaqular sight to see a 40ft stalagtite that has taken literally thousands of years to reach that size.
The Stalagtites can be found in the Blue Hole starting at 100ft, hanging suspended from the ceiling some more than 40ft long.

The Blue Hole and the surrounding area has been designated a World Heritage site due to is uniqueness and is another one of Belize’s many protected areas. (did you know that almost one third of the country of Belize is designated as protected reserves)

Many people don’t realize it but there are only 2 diveable spots in the Blue Hole, The north side which is the more popular side for the larger boats, due to fairly easy access to that side, and then theres the south side which generally only the smaller boats can access due to wind direction and the fact that it has to be dove from within the circumferance of the hole itself.

Each has only about 300ft or so of Stalagtites hanging down after that is just a flat wall of basically nothing. On the North divesite you only have Stalagtites (those that hang down) with nothing but the abyss below you, on the South side it has both Stalagtites and Stalagmites which can be found at around 145ft where there is a small ledge that has some Stalagmites, this is the side you are more likeley to encounter the resident Shark population.

In many message board posts you will read that some divers see lots of sharks while other divers see none and there is a simple explanation for this.
I have been diving the Blue Hole for more than 12 years now and while today the Blue Hole has a large population of Caribbean Reef Sharks it will depend on how you dive the Blue hole and whom you dive it with whether you will see the resident sharks or not.
Many years ago before this large population became a daily occurance, we did on occasion see sharks in the Blue Hole but always on the South side, and almost NEVER when we dove the North side which was 99% of the time, because as mentioned the size of the boat we were using only allowed us to dive the south side when winds were favorable..

 

[Gaz]

Don't Dive the Blue Hole. It wasn't worth the 185$ plus 10$ for the Area tax. It might be up to $40 now. I just got back from there. And, I wish I would have never went on that trip.



Belize’s Great Blue Hole
IS IT REALLY WORTH DIVING ? CONTINUED


By Gaz Cooper www.DiveBelize.com

So why do some divers see sharks and other do not ? heres the scoop

Nearly all the boats that dive the Blue Hole from San Pedro see the sharks, and the reason for this is that they get to the Blue Hole FIRST before the Aggressors and other large boats, resorts etc that are located in the area. (make a mental note here that normally its the very experienced divers that usually book the liveaboards and stay at the remoteAtoll resorts because thats where the best diving in Belize can usually be found)

Being the first to dive the Blue Hole affords them better visability since the first group to dive the Blue Hole gets the best vis, the reason for this is, as you decend it causes the silt to dislodge as the bubbles rise and releases the silt causing visability to become reduced.
When you consider that San Pedro sends up to 5 boats a day to the Blue Hole you can understand why those that dive it later in the morning under the pretext (Lets wait till the san pedro boats leave so its less busy) dive a site that has had probably 50 divers through it already before they get the chance to dive it.
This puts them at a distinct disadvantage as to the quality of the dive especially in the area of visability since 40-50 divers and there bubbles will reduce visability by up to 50% in some cases, in addition there are the Sharks.

The Sharks will sometimes follow you throughout the dive but are mainly ultilized at the end of the dive since you have an extended safety stop of 10 minutes or so and while waiting out that time on the sandy ledge located at 15ft you are buzzed and entertained by up to 30 Caribbean Reef Sharks.
The sharks are enduced to come to the surface by baiting the water with sardines this will bring them to the surface from the depths of the Blue Hole and give the diver the opportunity to view these magnificent creatures during the safety stop.

The liveaboards do not bait the water nor the local resorts and if this is not done the likelyhood of seeing any sharks is reduced by 90% so you can clearly see that most divers that dive the Blue Hole from a liveabord or an Atoll resort will have a far inferior dive due to these reasons.
In addition it is normally the very experienced divers that are ususally the ones that are on the liveaboards because this normally affords them the best diving opportunities in Belize and that is absolutely correct with the EXCEPTION of the Blue Hole dive based on how they are currently running that dive.

Over the years a repeated question is posted on the various diver message boards Is the Blue Hole Worth diving ? and you will see the same answers time and time again from don’t bother it’s a waste of time” to “A great dive well worth it and everthing in between.

Why is there such a vast difference in peoples opinions, my answer is that most regulars on message boards, that is those that post at least once a week etc are normally very active divers and have lots of experince and have had the opportunity to dive multiple places around the world and give there advice freely to others.
This however can do an injustice to a fairly new diver that happens upon a message board and asks the question is the Blue Hole worth diving ??
Most of the answers I have seen on message boards are negative when asking this question, mainly I believe because it’s a very experienced diver that maybe has 1000’s of dives under his belt and when he dove the Blue Hole it was probably from a liveaboard after a bunch of other divers had dove it and because of his worldly experience he was less than impressed with the Blue Hole, so he makes his experience heard to this fairly new diver that has only dove cozumel since certification and has 20 dives under his belt, he of course thinks this expert diver knows exactly what he is talking about so decided NOT to dive the Blue Hole because of what he has been told.

When this fairly new diver gets to Belize and is asked do you want to dive the Blue Hole I receive the answer OHH no I have heard its not that good” then I ask who told you that, and I receive an answer of I read it on a message board, or my friend came to Belize and he told me, so I ask did he dive the Blue Hole while he was here then ?? and I receive an answer Oh no but he had heard it was not worth it either so did not dive it when he was in Belize. I hear this time after time after time.

I then explain the Blue Hole trip and hopefully I have some guests inhouse that have just come back and then I don’t have to say a thing they will sell them a trip for me but if I do not have divers inhouse then I will tell them about the trip and encourage them to go and I usually add that if they don’t think it was worth it I will refund there money, needless to say to this date I have never refunded anyones money normally they are extremly appreciative that I talked them into it and let them make there own mind up and I am happy to break the cycle of the OH No I heard it was not worth it mode”.

Why do I do this if I make more money keeping them inhouse ? the reason is that I am the first to say that Belize has many different areas to dive and each unique in what it has to offer, based on what a specific diver is looking for in a vacation (that’s another Belize article to follow soon) I want the visiting diver to go back with a positive impression of diving Belize and anything I can do to increase there enjoyment of diving Belize then I will do that. The Blue Hole is a unique dive that if dove correctly can be an excellent addition to any divers logbook it will be less impressive to those divers with thousands of dives under there belt but the other 95% of divers will really enjoy the dive and view it as a positive enjoyable dive.

So next time you see a question posted on a message board asking about the Blue Hole be sensitive to the experince of the diver asking when you answer it. Divers whom have been lucky enough to travel all over the world with thousands of dives under there belt will find it less of a thrill however the average diver will enjoy diving the Great Blue Hole of Belize the abundant sharks the errie feeling and sheer difference,it will be a memorable diving experience for them, give them the chance to make there own judgements.

Dive Safe

Gaz Cooper
www.DiveBelize.com

 

[vladimir]

So what you're saying Gaz, I think, is that the Blue Hole is a mediocre dive, but if you add on a low visibility shark feed than it becomes memorable?

 

[yakivet]

Don't Dive the Blue Hole. It wasn't worth the 185$ plus 10$ for the Area tax. ...

Your glass of water is obviously half empty. The $185 isn't for the "Blue Hole", Its for the "Blue Hole" and the 2 other awesome dives that go along with it. Its for the lunch, the day on the boat, the trip to half-moon caye and a whole lot of activity. I've been diving since 1986, have seen a great part of the caribbean, and still managed to really enjoy the trip. I'll repeat it next time down. Dive with Amigo's for the long trips, Protech for the local stuff, and have a great time. Ken :42: