St. Lucia...where are the big boys?????

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jcpiota

jcpiota

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Location
alabama
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I have spent over 3 weeks diving in St. Lucia over the last year and a half. I love the island. I have been impressed in most of the areas with the amount of fish/marine life. Hundreds of bait fish everywhere. With the foundations of the ecosystem in place I am now completely curious with finding the next piece of the puzzle: the larger predators and the apex feeders that should be present.

Simple question...does anyone know where the big boys are?

Thanks
 
jcpiota,
my buddy and i dove st lucia 2 years ago.
the island is beautiful and most of the people are polite.
however, every dive site where they took us, we would see fish traps and gill nets.

we had planned to dive 6 days, but we cut it down to 2.
spent the rest of the holiday with the wives at the resort.

on the last day some local fishermen in 3 boats stretched a net across the resort's lagoon.
we watched as they drew the net in making it smaller and catching hundreds of fish.
this was the area where the guest would do their snorkling.

fish is a source of protien.
people gotta eat.
regards,
 
totally agree with harvesting natural resources...fish...protien etc.

i have watched them, the fisherman, for weeks. what you witnessed is similiar across the island. laying out the nets in the bays and gathering from there. however, there are baitfish by the thousands still in the bays; and off the walls; anse la ray.

i just can't help but think that, off those walls, cruising between st lucia and st vincent, there has to be larger predators...
 
smokey braden:
jcpiota,
my buddy and i dove st lucia 2 years ago.
the island is beautiful and most of the people are polite.
however, every dive site where they took us, we would see fish traps and gill nets.

we had planned to dive 6 days, but we cut it down to 2.
spent the rest of the holiday with the wives at the resort.

on the last day some local fishermen in 3 boats stretched a net across the resort's lagoon.
we watched as they drew the net in making it smaller and catching hundreds of fish.
this was the area where the guest would do their snorkling.

fish is a source of protien.
people gotta eat.
regards,
Click to expand...


Would you say that all that trapping made a significant impact on what there was to see under water? I am going there in August and I am just worried that there will be little to see. Sorta of what it can feel like in the Mediterranean sometimes.
 
If you can get someone to take you to the East side of the island, you'll have all the toothy critters you want.
 
Wookie:
If you can get someone to take you to the East side of the island, you'll have all the toothy critters you want.
Click to expand...

Really, speaking from experience? What have you seen there?
 
Really, I used to be a dive instructor there. I used to take our boat around the island on Sundays (when the shop was closed) around Cap Estate to Epouge bay. The coral and reef is very shallow there, and it's easy to get in boat trouble. We would see Mantas, Eagle rays, nurse sharks (no big pelagic sharks, but you knew that they were there), etc. Now, I haven't been there in a while, but that side of the island got very little traffic, seeing how it was only divable about 10 days out of the year.
 
Wookie- Who did you dive with when you were down there? Im getting ready to move to St lucia in August and have been somewhat less than impressed with the people I have talked to about diving. With the exception of Tommy at Frogs nobody has really given me the time of day when I want to talk to them about something other than the normal easy dive spots. It seems that its even hard to get a trip out to the Dani KoyoMaru (sp) and when you mention diving doubles they look at you like you have 9 heads! Add on top of that a 7 foot hose a can light and stage bottles they think your headed to the moon!!! . Hopefully I will find out things are different when I am there permanently.

Back to the original post-
I know there are some larger pelagics there from fishing, however it seems that they are in deep deep water. I see Tuna and billfish caught there all the time.

I will be headed back july 1 and hopefully will get to do some diving, I will let yall know what I find.
 
Panga Man:
Wookie- Who did you dive with when you were down there?
Click to expand...

Yeeeahhh..... If you want that kind of diving, I'd get my own boat. I was the resort instructor at the Rendezvous, so I'd only do something extraordinary on Sundays or if I had keen divers (vs. resort once-per-year types) in the house. I have nothing against resort divers, they are what makes the dive industry work, but that's not my kind of diving.
 
I am thinking about bringing my boat down there, however ive been told you cant dive off of your own boat unless you have an STL national dive master with you. :dontknow:

Hopefully this wont be the case.

Who do you recommend down there?
 
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