Nassau

[jeanne001]

Hi everyone,

I just returned from Nassau for a weeks diving vacation. I did 13 dives over 5 days with Stuart Coves and did the shark feed and my first night dive. It was great! I am a new diver and now have a whopping total of 27 dives under my belt and recieved my AOW Cert down there. But... I was very surprised at the condition of the reef. Although I saw alot of marine life, the reef seemed like it was 95% dead.

Are all of the Outer Islands the same way? It just seems so sad. I would really like to go to some of the other islands, but just wondering what to expect.

Can anybody shed any light?


Jeanne

 

[Ber Rabbit]

We thought the same thing the first dive we did down there, everything had been beaten to death by divers with poor buoyancy control. It only took us one day to prove we had the dive skills to go to the good sites and we were lumped in with another group of experienced divers. There are some amazing healthy reefs there but they are at deeper sites (the shallow parts are 60 feet) and not suitable for many new divers or most "vacation only" divers. If there aren't enough skilled divers to put them on their own boat everyone gets stuck diving the sites that are suitable for the lowest skilled diver in the group. Those happen to be the sites that have been ruined by those same divers.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[torqd]

Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas has a minimum of two dive boats that go out each morning and afternoon: novice and advanced. Divers on the advanced boat must have a minimum of 30 logged dives. Yes, it's arbitrary and offensive to some, but from a staffing perspective it does help make sure that divers are grouped somewhat close in experience levels.

Yes, the dive sites that the novice boat travels to are generally less vibrant and suffer from (sometimes) significant damage. It's unfortunate to have this level of damage to the reefs in the Bahamas, but it's not just here. Having spent lengths of time working in both Hawaii and Thailand, I can speak of equivalent, or worse, levels of damage at each of those locations.

Stuart Cove's is attempting to do two things by keeping less experienced divers constrained to these areas: 1) protecting the other, larger areas of corals from equivalent damage from divers with poor buoyancy control, and 2) protecting themselves by ensuring the maximum depth of the dive by using the ocean bottom as a physical floor.

Disclaimer: I work for Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas but DO NOT SPEAK for the company.

 

[jeanne001]

Thanks for both of the replies. I am very glad to hear that not all of the reefs are in the same shape as the ones I had seen. I have/had no problems with the dives that we did with Stuart Coves. We were taken very well care of. the staff were all very professional. and we all had a great time, and would go back in the future. The shark dives were especially awesome!

Thanks again for your responses.

Jeanne

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

When I went out of Nassau to the Exumas we found every reef to be very pristine.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

We're looking forward to going back, we were hoping it would be this year but with airfare at $400-600 it's not looking good. Personally I LOVE all the wrecks that are available!

Hey torqd,
I heard one of the wrecks went over the side of the cliff, I was told it was the "Anne" but I don't remember that one being close to the drop off. Was it the one they called "Clifton's Wreck"? That was an AWESOME dive but the wreck seemed to be perched in a rather precarious position.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Sue_W_AZ]

Are all of the Outer Islands the same way? It just seems so sad. I would really like to go to some of the other islands, but just wondering what to expect.

In my experience, most of the reefs around the Bahamas are in great condition. The Exumas are fantastic. Just got back last night from Freeport - 3 days of diving with Grand Bahama Scuba. Reefs were in good shape, lots of diversity in the marine life. You might want to check out a liveaboard like the AquaCat to get to the really pristine sites.

Sue