Going Negative with Topic

[deer_meat01]

Okay I have to admit the one thing I did not consider was a troll.

I am not that new to the internet and I do not believe everything I read but I do think there are people around who are much more educated on specific topics than myself. However I probably do not do go to such sites that harden a person to internet culture like Reddit or 4chan. I do read a ton but usually not the comments in articles. In ways I am less interested in espousing my views than I am in reading yours (although I do have them) and the information they contain. The world is a lot smaller these days and true and false information is flowing. I do like scubaboard!

It is so interesting how definitive experienced scuba divers can be! Seems like each one has a definitive advice. So funny. I do like it! Food for thought and all. I am less definitive on there being just one answer but I am definitive when it comes to making a choice and going with it. I spend very little time debating my choices unless it just does not work out.

I do like TripAdvisor and I do tend to read the bad reviews just to see what was written although many must be taken with a grain of salt. You can not please everyone all the time.

So I guess the response of me being a bit gullible to wonder what this guy was talking abt is warranted. I recognized his posts as being over the top but not so much as a troll. I guess I was thinking back to last summer in Puerto Rico where I was not planning to dive based on reviews of it not being worth it, to melting in Old San Juan, to me saying I would rather see what was under the sea than melt again, to booking a dive trip in Fajardo and really enjoying myself! I saw quite a few turtles. Granted it was my 15th and 16th dive but I would do it again. I have stories from that trip! I also decided not to dive St Kitts last summer based on reviews and I now regret that choice. It's all abt building a base of knowledge.

Egg on my face! Sorry.

You make a good point...not everyone on SB has 4000 dives and forgotten how to appreciate the "less desirable" dive destinations. I only have 12 dives under my belt and recently got back into diving. Last year I went to Playa del Carmen not to dive but to celebrate a bunch of 40 year olds birthdays. At first, I wasn't go to dive because it's "not Cozumel." Then I went from "wth, it's not a quarry" to extremely glad I went diving 2 days.

The point being, everything is relative. I'm sure there are a bunch of people lurking SB just for some objective info on a particular destination that might not be the ideal diving destination, but since they are going they might want to get anyway...

 

[AWMIII]

I got back from San pedro 2 weeks ago and will be back down there in 2 weeks. I have done about 150 local dives off Ambergris Caye. I feel like the reef is getting BETTER. The coral was never dead. The diving in AC tends to be a tad on the deep side. People who expect to see Finding Nemo in Technicolor was going to be disappointed. The colors can be muted. So what! During my 10 dives on my last trip, I saw eagle rays, sting rays, a yellow ray. I saw lobsters, crabs (big and small) and eels. I saw lots of very healthy colorful coral. I saw fish big and tiny. There were many baby fish on the reef. I enjoyed watching 2 huge black groupers 3 or 4ft long eating fry. I saw reef sharks and nurse sharks. A whale Shark was spotted at Tackle Box by another group, but we weren't that lucky. I saw lots of eating sized groupers and mutton snapper. I did not even see that many lionfish. I went entire dives without seeing any lion fish. Our worst viz was about 80ft. On one dive it started out in the 200ft range.

 

[cnherrick]

I just got back (last week) from a day of diving Belize. It was fabulous, I was prepared not to like it but honestly I would return and would look forward to it. The dive operator was great. And those are facts.

 

[Saltyhawg]

My wife and I spent a week in AC 2/13-2/21. We did 17 dives and had a great time. The reef is not as varied as some terrain wise but some of those deep canyons were impressive. I don't see how sea fans and gorgonians could have been much more plentiful There were a lot of SPS corals....much more than in Cozumel. We saw ridgetops literally covered with montipora. Staghorns were plentiful though we did see some dead ones. Stylophora were present in good numbers also.

Large animals were everywhere. We saw as many as 5 nurse sharks at a time. Grouper and snapper were there in good numbers. Eagle rays were seen often and we even had a pod of dolphins do a swim by for us. Turtles were not as plentiful as I've seen elsewhwere but they weren't rare at all.

The one thing we didn't see in good numbers were angels and sponges. Since these two go together it's not surprising that the small number of sponges resulted in smaller numbers of Queen, Gray and French Angels. We didn't see any Cherub angels.

 

[joshr502]

I love diving in AC. My parents have a house in San Pedro and are about to retire and live there full time, so luckily, I will be taking quite a few trips down there. I've always dove with Amigos del Mar and have never had an issue with them. They have always been professional, safe and fun. Here are a few pics.

 

[Downing]

I've always dove with Amigos del Mar and have never had an issue with them.

Maybe because you're not a teenage girl?

Interesting that PADI would give ADM the boot but not SSI and SDI.

 

[ron_dodge]

My parents have a house in San Pedro and are about to retire and live there full time, so luckily, I will be taking quite a few trips down there.

You and I need to become friends.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

The dives we did for 3 days in Ambergris Caye a few years ago showed massive canyon extending out to sea with very little life on them. I actually took a picture of an azure vase sponge because it was the only thing alive on the reef. There were shallow dives such as Hol Chan that were nice though. I did not think Ambergris was worth the trip or a return.
I am not a troll......

 

[AWMIII]

The dives we did for 3 days in Ambergris Caye a few years ago showed massive canyon extending out to sea with very little life on them. I actually took a picture of an azure vase sponge because it was the only thing alive on the reef. There were shallow dives such as Hol Chan that were nice though. I did not think Ambergris was worth the trip or a return.
I am not a troll......[/QUOTE}

If all you saw was one massive canyon, you must have dove in the canyon. If it was massive, it was probably Tuffy or San Pedro Canyon. Down in the crack, there is not much sunshine. It also does not help that you are deeper. The top of the reef which is from about 40ft to 75ft deep is very much alive. I will include a link to my drop box to show video from my dives last week. I have done 16 dives in San Pedro year to date and about 200 total there. The reef looks very good in most places. It is totally normal and healthy for there to be small patches of dead coral. This is not a great quality video, but I think it fairly represents the reef in San Pedro. Most of this was shot between Tackle Box and Tuffy. A lot of the divemasters like diving the canyons. They like the swim throughs. They like the depth because it makes the dives shorter. But if you want to see healthy living coral and fish of all sizes, that is not the place to go. The top of the reef in the sunlight is where it is at. This video was shot with a Gopro Hero 3 Black with 2 350 lumen lights and a backscatter dive filter. It is all between 50 and 75ft deep. The lights and the filter bring back the colors that the depth steals.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9fu40hsr52mgta/San Pedro 2015 Caelan 720p.mp4?dl=0

Download the video rather than watching it online for higher quality video.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

The dives we did for 3 days in Ambergris Caye a few years ago showed massive canyon extending out to sea with very little life on them. I actually took a picture of an azure vase sponge because it was the only thing alive on the reef. There were shallow dives such as Hol Chan that were nice though. I did not think Ambergris was worth the trip or a return.
I am not a troll......[/QUOTE}

If all you saw was one massive canyon, you must have dove in the canyon. If it was massive, it was probably Tuffy or San Pedro Canyon. Down in the crack, there is not much sunshine. It also does not help that you are deeper. The top of the reef which is from about 40ft to 75ft deep is very much alive. I will include a link to my drop box to show video from my dives last week. I have done 16 dives in San Pedro year to date and about 200 total there. The reef looks very good in most places. It is totally normal and healthy for there to be small patches of dead coral. This is not a great quality video, but I think it fairly represents the reef in San Pedro. Most of this was shot between Tackle Box and Tuffy. A lot of the divemasters like diving the canyons. They like the swim throughs. They like the depth because it makes the dives shorter. But if you want to see healthy living coral and fish of all sizes, that is not the place to go. The top of the reef in the sunlight is where it is at. This video was shot with a Gopro Hero 3 Black with 2 350 lumen lights and a backscatter dive filter. It is all between 50 and 75ft deep. The lights and the filter bring back the colors that the depth steals.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9fu40hsr52mgta/San Pedro 2015 Caelan 720p.mp4?dl=0

Download the video rather than watching it online for higher quality video.

Gosh where did I type that all I saw was one massive canyon? I dove there for 3 days including a night dive after spending time diving Turneffe. The reef was dead, dead, dead with the exception of the shallow dives. I would return to Turneffe or Placencia but never Ambergris. If the divemasters are frequenting crappy sites to make their days easier then shame on them - another reason not to return. Thanks for the education about the colors being less vibrant as you deeper too- as an avid underwater photographer I had no idea- now I know what's wrong with my photo's (sarcasm)!!!