Have SB divers lost interest in GC?

[boulderjohn]

As for us, the Cayman's had a chance, and it passed. There are lots of places to dive in this world.

I might be willing to give Grand Cayman another chance. Easier with just a couple people than a group. I have had many great dives off of Grand Cayman, I would like to see if they are still there.

I should make a separate report rather than tack this onto a 2-year old thread, but this will bring some closure. After being shut out from Grand Cayman by the Covid experience, we are in Grand Cayman as I type. We have completed two days of diving so far, and so far we are sorely disappointed.

As I dived yesterday, I found myself thinking of my recent trip visiting the ruins of Mycenae in Greece. As I looked at those ruins, I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have been a spectacular city 3,200 years ago, when the buildings were intact and colorfully painted, with a thriving population filling its streets. I thought the same thing about Grand Cayman's reefs, and I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have once been a spectacular reef, when the coral was still alive with brilliant color, with a thousands of fish swarming the area. These last few days have indeed been much like visiting the bare, ruined rocks of Mycenae. I can only imagine how great the reef must have been once upon a time.

One thing we had not anticipated was the policies of the dive operation with which we are contracted--DiveTech. Pre-covid, they were a bigger outfit. Today, they have one boat, and it never goes to any site more than a 5-minute ride from the West Bay dock. That means what we have seen the last two days are what we will see for the rest of the week.

Next week we will be in Little Cayman.

 

[tridacna]

I should make a separate report rather than tack this onto a 2-year old thread, but this will bring some closure. After being shut out from Grand Cayman by the Covid experience, we are in Grand Cayman as I type. We have completed two days of diving so far, and so far we are sorely disappointed.

As I dived yesterday, I found myself thinking of my recent trip visiting the ruins of Mycenae in Greece. As I looked at those ruins, I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have been a spectacular city 3,200 years ago, when the buildings were intact and colorfully painted, with a thriving population filling its streets. I thought the same thing about Grand Cayman's reefs, and I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have once been a spectacular reef, when the coral was still alive with brilliant color, with a thousands of fish swarming the area. These last few days have indeed been much like visiting the bare, ruined rocks of Mycenae. I can only imagine how great the reef must have been once upon a time.

One thing we had not anticipated was the policies of the dive operation with which we are contracted--DiveTech. Pre-covid, they were a bigger outfit. Today, they have one boat, and it never goes to any site more than a 5-minute ride from the West Bay dock. That means what we have seen the last two days are what we will see for the rest of the week.

Next week we will be in Little Cayman.

Looking fed to hearing about LC. I’ll be there in three weeks.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @boulderjohn

Sad to hear, I wonder if it would be the same if you were diving north wall or east end? Sorry to hear about Divetech, they suffered a tremendous blow from the big storm on February 5th and 6th this year.
Waterfront businesses assess damage from 'devastating' nor'wester.
I haven't stayed on Grand Cayman since 2011 and that was at Compass Point with Ocean Frontiers, we had a very good time.

Look forward to your report from Little Cayman.

 

[Joneill]

I should make a separate report rather than tack this onto a 2-year old thread, but this will bring some closure. After being shut out from Grand Cayman by the Covid experience, we are in Grand Cayman as I type. We have completed two days of diving so far, and so far we are sorely disappointed.

As I dived yesterday, I found myself thinking of my recent trip visiting the ruins of Mycenae in Greece. As I looked at those ruins, I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have been a spectacular city 3,200 years ago, when the buildings were intact and colorfully painted, with a thriving population filling its streets. I thought the same thing about Grand Cayman's reefs, and I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have once been a spectacular reef, when the coral was still alive with brilliant color, with a thousands of fish swarming the area. These last few days have indeed been much like visiting the bare, ruined rocks of Mycenae. I can only imagine how great the reef must have been once upon a time.

One thing we had not anticipated was the policies of the dive operation with which we are contracted--DiveTech. Pre-covid, they were a bigger outfit. Today, they have one boat, and it never goes to any site more than a 5-minute ride from the West Bay dock. That means what we have seen the last two days are what we will see for the rest of the week.

Next week we will be in Little Cayman.

Maybe take a $ loss and do a day at East End with Ocean Frontiers to see if it’s better out that way (I found it was previously but that was prepandemic)?

I was in Little Cayman for the first time last September and was also very disappointed with the reefs (tremendous amount of bleaching) and sparse marine life on most sites.

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

I should make a separate report rather than tack this onto a 2-year old thread, but this will bring some closure. After being shut out from Grand Cayman by the Covid experience, we are in Grand Cayman as I type. We have completed two days of diving so far, and so far we are sorely disappointed.

As I dived yesterday, I found myself thinking of my recent trip visiting the ruins of Mycenae in Greece. As I looked at those ruins, I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have been a spectacular city 3,200 years ago, when the buildings were intact and colorfully painted, with a thriving population filling its streets. I thought the same thing about Grand Cayman's reefs, and I wondered what it would have been like to visit what must have once been a spectacular reef, when the coral was still alive with brilliant color, with a thousands of fish swarming the area. These last few days have indeed been much like visiting the bare, ruined rocks of Mycenae. I can only imagine how great the reef must have been once upon a time.

One thing we had not anticipated was the policies of the dive operation with which we are contracted--DiveTech. Pre-covid, they were a bigger outfit. Today, they have one boat, and it never goes to any site more than a 5-minute ride from the West Bay dock. That means what we have seen the last two days are what we will see for the rest of the week.

Next week we will be in Little Cayman.

I appreciate the honest appraisal but it'd be cool to see a detailed write-up or some photos of what you saw (or what you expected to see but didn't). Tons of algae? Very few fish including grazers? Lots of soft corals, or none? Sponges? Obvious signs of long-dead corals? Obvious storm damage?

Though there are plenty of academic papers detailing the decline of Caribbean Reefs, they tend to be of the 30,000' ASL level variety; an experienced diver's perspective would be valuable.

-Thanks

 

[boulderjohn]

I used Ocean Frontiers the only other time I was on Grand Cayman, but that was in 2003. They were great. My friends wanted to do the west side.

We certainly know about the damage they suffered. We are staying where they suffered it the most, in Lighthouse Point. Their facilities there are not repaired yet, so we do not have access to them. (We booked it all before the storm.)

I am not a photographer, so you will get no pictures. What I see is the coral skeletons of a great reef structure, with most of the dead coral covered in algae. There are very few fish.

 

[gratefulmjc]

Unable to coord a trip with my usual buddies until the fall, I said "screw it" and a few days ago set up a last minute solo trip to GC. I'll be staying at Compass Point getting there on the 20th. I'll post my impressions of the current state of the East End...and if my photos aren't too embarrassing, I'll upload some of them. I was on LC in late Feb so I should be able to offer some comparative thoughts too.

Fingers crossed the East End is faring better than the West (I say that from way more than a selfish perspective...too many threads on SB with observations of SCTLD and bleaching).

@boulderjohn, I hope Bloody Bay Wall serves up some great dives. Given your practiced eye, I would be interested in your take on LC.

 

[Alucard]

From my experiences diving off the west side of GC over this past winter....

The shore dive sites seem to have taken quite a hit from storms. The shallows are going to take quite a while to recover, but I did see a school of 7 rainbow parrotfish in the shallows off Macabuca, feeding off algae. Lots of flounder on the hardpan too. The tops of the mini wall on North West Point took a bit in February from a storm that wiped out a lot of the sea fans and tube sponges, most of them can be seen lying on the bottom of the mini wall now. The coral bleaching that I saw in abundance in the summer seems to have recovered and while I did see some of the stony coral tissue loss disease it didn't seem very widespread. down the bottom of the mini wall, Eagle rays were quite common, Barracuda, hogfish, and all the usual critters. I don't think it's a scenic as it was last year but from a fish life point of view I felt it was comparable.

Did some boat dives off the west side and have to say it was still spectacular - Orange Canyon delivered with some amazing views of the wall, and water vis was excellent. The shallow dive (Spanish Anchor, I think) was very nice with lots of diverse coral and plenty of different fish.

 

[tkaelin]

I started diving GC in late 70's early 80' and then returned a number of times 2012-2018. I have a enough interest to return later this month with stays on both LC and GC. The development on GC is more of a negative for me than any changes in the reefs and what changes I have seen in the reef are more storm related than disease or rising water temp related.

Most of my early diving was boat diving off 7mb and south and have fond memories of diving sites such as trinity caves and orange canyon. I was lucky enough to dive with Capt Butch/Seasports and we dove with him at sites he wanted to dive. It was a 6 pack type operation and we routinely did recreational deco dives to 110'-120' at these sites. It was quite spectacular. My more recent boat dives off 7MB beach have been somewhat disappointing but that has more to do with more conservative dive requirements required now and less to do with any perceived reduction in quality of the reef. My more recent boat diving on GC has been primarily with OF/CP and I still enjoy the quiet east end and diving north, east and south sites. I always enjoy shore diving at Turtle Reef and Hepps.

I have only been to LC once and that was in 2010 and that was only three days. I thought the diving was spectacular then (even compared to my early GC diving) and curious to see what is like now. My guess is it is still spectacular.

 

[Joneill]

I have only been to LC once and that was in 2010 and that was only three days. I thought the diving was spectacular then (even compared to my early GC diving) and curious to see what is like now. My guess is it is still spectacular.

It was far from spectacular last September - you can see the tremendous bleaching on shallow reefs here:



And even on the deeper reefs here (no color corrected, but you can see all of the white areas on the wall):



You also see a lack of life. There were some sites that were decent and had life but nothing that was what I expected based on accounts from friends who had been there previously.