The recent magazine articles do a decent job of summarizing Statia. On the Blue Bead Hole muck dive, we saw no less than 6 flying gurnards, that we could approach within 1 foot for pictures without spooking them. Then there was the purple spotted cleaner shrimp and the golden cleaner srimp out in the open in midday, etc. etc. The island is volcanic in origin and the majority of the diving is on the leeward side, like Dominica, with black sand like Dominica, and vibrant colors and lots of sea life out in the open even during the day, like Dominica.
It's less populous - somewhere between 1500 and 2000 residents if I remember correctly; Statia has a medical college full of American students like Dominica.
Unlike Dominica, "town" is very small for the capital, no traffic to speak of, but also not as much in the way of topside stuff like waterfalls, although it was pleasant topside. When we stayed on Dominica, we were in the Salisbury / Coalihaut area, away from the two main cities - and this is what the capital of Statia is like.
The shore dive at East Carib Dive on Dominica is similar to the muck dive at Statia, and probably the shore diving from the beach at Statia - we didn't do the shore dive from the beach during our visit to Statia so I can't definitively say that, but it's highly likely they are very similar.
The wrecks at Statia form an integral part of the night dives, unlike Dominica, but night dives both islands were great.
Unlike Saba, there was no rush to get everyone off the boat and on the mooring line for pinnacle dives in moderate current. My left ear is still squeaky from rushing and not equalizing quite properly on one of those dives from Saba.
FWIW, we like 'far from the maddening crowd' sites, and Statia fit this bill even more so than Saba for our trip. There was even a big trade convention on Saba at our hotel right before we departed, with a ferry full of Dutch 'potential investors', etc. - this was hardly noticeable to anyone who has been in a metropolitan area for any length of time. Saba was a bit 'busy' while we were there, as topside went, as the medical college students on Saba had finished their exams for the term and were at the restaraunts and watering holes like Swinging Doors in droves on BBQ night for example.
There is a busy petroleum terminaling service on Statia (much like Bonaire), now owned by Valero. You can see the shallow draft tankers offloading and the deep draft supertankers loading there. I met the terminal manager at the trade show and left one of my business cards with him - you never know . . .
The staff and owners at Golden Rock were great to deal with, professional but still with a sense of humor and definite focus on fun for everyone.
The staff and owners at Sea Saba were also great to deal with, it's the inherent nature of the pinnacle dives that is the main difference IMO.
The seas were like glass during our stay on Statia, at least on the leeward side. The Golden Rock dive boat EZ-GO-IN is a perfect platform for diving the leeward side.
My better half is working on transferring her dive pics to our home PC as we speak.
