Trip Report Trip Report: Cayman Aggressor IV, April 28-May 5, 2018

[AggieDiver]

I think that there may be some negative feelings about the Aggressor among some of the Cayman dive ops. I am not pointing fingers at any specific dive op but one time we did encounter some hostility in Little Cayman. Perhaps it's because they compete for the sites that are available to the land-based dive ops, but I am sure that the Aggressor also has to pay the fees required by the harbor, the government, and CITA.

A few years ago, we were staying on Little Cayman and the 2 divemasters on our boat made several, small, spiteful comments about the Aggressor, like never referring to it by name and calling it that "Big ugly boat over there!"

Finally, a diver on our boat asked about the comments, and one of the divemaster went into a tirade against the Cayman Aggressor.

He said that they "always grab the best sites" and that they "sit on one site all day and never move the boat", and that they "don't care about the environment" and that they "chum for sharks!"

I thought that his comments were surprising and rather unprofessional, but I am sure that the Aggressor does grab the best sites first because they don't have to go back to the resort, but they always moved the boat at least twice per day - to grab another great site - and that was fine with me when I was on the boat! But they always seemed respectful of the environment on our trip, and they did NOT chum for sharks.

Anyway, there may be some antagonism between the Aggressor and some of the local dive ops, at least on Little Cayman. We didn't encounter any negative comments about the Aggressor during our most recent trip to LC, but there was bad weather the first couple of days and the Aggressor didn't make the crossing, but I still feel that the Aggressor represents another option to consider for divers that want to come to Cayman and do a lot of diving.

Kathy, I think part of the problem is that they don’t “always move the boat several times a day”. That may be their typical practice, but they don’t always do it. As I said previously, I know at least one trip where they stayed on Randy’s Gazebo all day one day...we came out in the am and they were on it, and we came out for the afternoon and they were on it. I remember it because there was a couple on the boat leaving the next day (afternoon flight) who were wanting to dive the site and didn’t get a chance. That same week they were on either Nancy’s or Jackson’s for both morning and afternoon trips one day. I think the rivalry is pretty typical between dive ops. I have heard the rumors of the aggressor crew feeding sharks in the past...but not recently.

 

[KathyV]

Kathy, I think part of the problem is that they don’t “always move the boat several times a day”. That may be their typical practice, but they don’t always do it. As I said previously, I know at least one trip where they stayed on Randy’s Gazebo all day one day...we came out in the am and they were on it, and we came out for the afternoon and they were on it. I remember it because there was a couple on the boat leaving the next day (afternoon flight) who were wanting to dive the site and didn’t get a chance. That same week they were on either Nancy’s or Jackson’s for both morning and afternoon trips one day. I think the rivalry is pretty typical between dive ops. I have heard the rumors of the aggressor crew feeding sharks in the past...but not recently.

I can't imagine why they would want to stay on one a site all day, the guests want to dive different sites and don't want to dive the same spot over and over.

Where did you hear the rumors about them chumming the sharks? Some dive ops and liveaboards do shark feeding dives in the Bahamas, but I've never heard of that in the Caymans. Although I suppose that it may have happened some time in the past, but that certainly wasn't our experience on the Cayman Aggressor. It didn't even come up in conversation - and I've never read a trip report from someone claiming that the Cayman Aggressor was chumming.

@drrich2, you always do such extensive research before selecting a dive trip, did you come across any reports of the Cayman Aggressor chumming?

 

[drrich2]

No, and they didn't do it on our 2016 trip, either. I haven't heard of any op.s doing it in recent years; don't know about the distant past. If any popular op. were chumming in the Caymans, seems like word would get around.

Richard.

 

[caydiver]

I too think it would get around but I don't understand the point of spreading rumors either. Now someone can say oh there was a discussion about The Aggressor chumming for sharks in Cayman. One DM said he knew about it. This is how bad stuff which possibly has absolutely no basis can get started. I may not be someone who would use The Aggressor in Cayman but don't need to see them unfairly tagged either. If they are not guilty of chumming why keep the rumor mill going. I sincerely doubt that anyone is going to pop up and say yes I saw them do it and even if they did, how do you know they are not an unhappy customer or a disgruntled employee. And yes to drrich2 in old days some ops did feed the sharks. Did lots of things in the old days that we know better than doing today. Probably in 20 years some of things we do now will be proven to be inappropriate. Hopefully customers then will just say how silly us old codgers were and not go on and on about the mistakes we made.

 

[Stoo]

Do you think it possible (and you would not be the only one on SB) that you might just be over thinking every possible aspect of your dive trip and possibly at the expense of fully relaxing and enjoying the experience?

I have NEVER had a bad dive vacation. Some were more memorable than others, but ones ability to relax and go with the flow is critical. Liveaboards always have the potential to be awesome. They also have an increased likelihood of things going sideways.

I stopped reading this review after the first page, but it sounds like the OP had a nice trip and that's what matters.

 

[Damselfish]

The thing about the Aggressor staying on one site is that's not their routine, because that's not what the customers will want and they'll complain. I can only imagine it happened once due to some special circumstance and the story lives on. Or that they hadn't gotten around to moving yet when the dayboat got there.

 

[AggieDiver]

Just to be clear, I was not trying to say anything other than I had heard the rumor regarding the "chumming", and in fact, what I believe was said back then (and this was several years ago) was that they were discarding food scraps from their cooking, not that they were actively doing true chum for shark dives. I have no personal knowledge of any of it and assume it is just typical chatter between dive ops, not anybody trying to make serious accusations of wrongdoing. Hopefully nobody took what I was saying as any kind of slight towards the Aggressor, as I don't have anything negative to say about them or their operation. I think it is clear that their mooring practices are generally different than I had believed based on limited observation. I honestly don't typically pay much attention to them when we dive on LC, but noted it that one trip because they were on sites we wanted to get to. That was when I asked about why they were staying there all day and the DM with Reef Divers said there were only a few moorings that the Aggressor could use. It sounds like that information was less definitive than it sounded at the time, and I apologize if anything I said misled anybody.

 

[Damselfish]

I know some boats toss food scraps overboard. I suspect many (most? all?) do. It might not often be seen. I don't consider that chumming for sharks, and probably most of it sharks wouldn't even be interested in. I know for a fact Oceanic Whitetips don't like Lorna Doones...

 

[tkaelin]

Why are they tossing any of their garbage in the water, food scraps or otherwise. Doesn't seem like a good practice, especially in GC where the boats are right off shore and on top of popular dive sites. If this is in fact the practice it should stop.

 

[caydiver]

I don't know of anyone who tosses food over here. We used to throw orange peels over after eating the oranges but even that stopped long ago. I am guessing that there are regulations about where vessels that have overnight guests put their food waste on longer trips. I doubt that any of the private charters or the livaboard are doing any dumping near the dive sites. Years ago it was a big thing for tourists to feed CheezWiz (sp?) canned fake cheese with a nozzle to fish but thank goodness that has stopped too. Now if we could just do something about plastic straws, bag and cups and of course flipflops!