hey, i just got back from discovery bay.. the water there is great, nice reefs, however tons of sea urchins..
the place is fished out, theres always spear fishermen going out daily so u wont see a fish much longer than a foot ( and thats if ur lucky )
other things to look out for are locals.. the driving there is horrible, we actually got into an accident avoiding a head on accident, instead we broadsided.. i was fortunate because i wasnt wearing my seatbelt. you'll be harrassed repeadly to buy things, they wont leave u alone till u give in. it is very trashy, they have large piles of trahs by the streets which they burn every night..
also you want to be carful of the bugs.. tons of little insects crawling around aimlessly, it was so bad that we had to spray ourselves with bugspray before going to bed.
things are also very expensive.. we had 4 dollars (usd) for a big of lays chips, about 2 dollars for a bottle of water..
1 dollar is equal to 60 jamaica dollars
i did not do any diving in discovery bay, i dove in runaway bay about 15minutes away, it is the bay over. the diving in jamaica in incredible(execept the fish problem), it made up for all the other problems and concerns, great visibility, and tons of coral. it is most unfortunate that there is such a loss of large fish...we did discover a LARGE grouper on a wreck dive, and a large sting ray.
i did lots of snorkeling in discovery bay.. in the middle and on the whole east side of the bay, it was quite nice, lots of sea urchins, i also was able to see some schools of baracuddas. i was also able to do some freediving in discovery bay.. depths range up to 196ft deep, and if u go to deeper water u can often see very large starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins..
other than the diving and snorkeling, it wasnt a very enjoyable vacation due to the poverty, harrassment, and horibble drivers
i also was able to see ashlee simpson at the JFK airport, she was ahead of us in the line for security.. god is she hot.. and has some really big body guards too