bkotheimer
Contributor
I went through the trouble to write this for my club newsletter last month. Might as well post it here on Scubaboard as well:
In early 2010, when friends invited my wife and me to join them on a mid-May trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica, my thoughts naturally turned immediately to the diving opportunities. A little online research told me that Jamaica is widely considered to be mediocre diving at best due to overfishing and a general lack of conservation on the reefs surrounding the island. Furthermore, it seemed to be the general consensus that if you are going to dive Jamaica, you must dive Negril. Nevertheless, I packed my gear and made reservations for two days of diving Montego Bay with Captains Watersports, the in-house dive service at Round Hill Hotel & Villas. Captains is the operator for about a half dozen resorts in the MoBay Area.
At Round Hill, I met Divemaster Julie Ann at the hotel dock where the staff was loading AL80s onto the 23 ft. center console dive boat. On both days, aside from Julie Ann, I was the only diver on board. Now thats personalized service!
On Day 1, Captain Moon took us southeast of the hotel toward the airport on a short (10 minute) trip to the first dive site, Spanish Anchor. This site actually consists of two large anchors standing upright on the reef, separated by a great multilevel coral playground (we reached 82' before the natural light became unuseable and I asked Julie Ann to ascend a bit) . The coral formations, in fact, are one of the features that Jamaica's dive industry is rather proud of. They have a large and complex growth of soft and hard coral with deep canyons and fun swimthroughs.
And due to the establishment and maintenance of a marine park all around the Montego Bay area, the fish population was much better than I'd been led to believe. Blue Chromis were everywhere, along with a decent number of blue tangs, sergeant majors, squirrelfish and various species of wrasse, grunts and angelfish. Here and there I would see a trumpetfish running for cover, along with some of the biggest pufferfish I ever saw.
The second site that day, Classroom, brought more of the same and a pair of squid too on a pleasant 43 ft. reef dive.
On Day 2, Captain Hercules took Julie Ann and me northwest of the hotel near the famous Tryall Golf Club. The first site was Chub Reef, with its large namesake fish, the Bermuda chub. These big guys were out in abundance, more so because Julie Ann brought them some treats. Feeding fish on a dive is frowned on by many, but in any case they were all over us as a result. We stayed up around 60 feet with the bottom visible down the wall at around 100' (I resisted the urge at one point to pursue a southern stingray I saw down on the sand).
The second dive of the day, Tryall Reef, was a another nice shallow (36') dive with abundant natural light and good small critter opportunities, from what I could tell. I'm still no good at spotting macro life unless someone literally points it out to me, which Julie Ann did with the occasional cleaner shrimp here and there.
With the exception of the the Spanish Anchor mooring for the entry, all other entries and exits were live boat drops and pickups. Julie Ann towed a float on Chub Reef and shot an SMB at the end of the other three dives. The water temperature was a cozy 84 degrees Fahrenheit on all dives and the visibility was 100 ft. or better on all but one dive. As to lionfish sightings, I saw only one and that was at Spanish Anchor.
I also should mention that the house reef at Round Hill offered excellent snorkeling opportunities, with many of the same coral and fish varieties in only 10' or less of water, along with a few very active yellow stingrays. I spent the rest of the trip on this reef with my face in the water when I wasn't at the bar or gorging myself at the resort's restaurant.
Here is a short video of my Montego Bay diving experience:
In early 2010, when friends invited my wife and me to join them on a mid-May trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica, my thoughts naturally turned immediately to the diving opportunities. A little online research told me that Jamaica is widely considered to be mediocre diving at best due to overfishing and a general lack of conservation on the reefs surrounding the island. Furthermore, it seemed to be the general consensus that if you are going to dive Jamaica, you must dive Negril. Nevertheless, I packed my gear and made reservations for two days of diving Montego Bay with Captains Watersports, the in-house dive service at Round Hill Hotel & Villas. Captains is the operator for about a half dozen resorts in the MoBay Area.
At Round Hill, I met Divemaster Julie Ann at the hotel dock where the staff was loading AL80s onto the 23 ft. center console dive boat. On both days, aside from Julie Ann, I was the only diver on board. Now thats personalized service!
On Day 1, Captain Moon took us southeast of the hotel toward the airport on a short (10 minute) trip to the first dive site, Spanish Anchor. This site actually consists of two large anchors standing upright on the reef, separated by a great multilevel coral playground (we reached 82' before the natural light became unuseable and I asked Julie Ann to ascend a bit) . The coral formations, in fact, are one of the features that Jamaica's dive industry is rather proud of. They have a large and complex growth of soft and hard coral with deep canyons and fun swimthroughs.
And due to the establishment and maintenance of a marine park all around the Montego Bay area, the fish population was much better than I'd been led to believe. Blue Chromis were everywhere, along with a decent number of blue tangs, sergeant majors, squirrelfish and various species of wrasse, grunts and angelfish. Here and there I would see a trumpetfish running for cover, along with some of the biggest pufferfish I ever saw.
The second site that day, Classroom, brought more of the same and a pair of squid too on a pleasant 43 ft. reef dive.
On Day 2, Captain Hercules took Julie Ann and me northwest of the hotel near the famous Tryall Golf Club. The first site was Chub Reef, with its large namesake fish, the Bermuda chub. These big guys were out in abundance, more so because Julie Ann brought them some treats. Feeding fish on a dive is frowned on by many, but in any case they were all over us as a result. We stayed up around 60 feet with the bottom visible down the wall at around 100' (I resisted the urge at one point to pursue a southern stingray I saw down on the sand).
The second dive of the day, Tryall Reef, was a another nice shallow (36') dive with abundant natural light and good small critter opportunities, from what I could tell. I'm still no good at spotting macro life unless someone literally points it out to me, which Julie Ann did with the occasional cleaner shrimp here and there.
With the exception of the the Spanish Anchor mooring for the entry, all other entries and exits were live boat drops and pickups. Julie Ann towed a float on Chub Reef and shot an SMB at the end of the other three dives. The water temperature was a cozy 84 degrees Fahrenheit on all dives and the visibility was 100 ft. or better on all but one dive. As to lionfish sightings, I saw only one and that was at Spanish Anchor.
I also should mention that the house reef at Round Hill offered excellent snorkeling opportunities, with many of the same coral and fish varieties in only 10' or less of water, along with a few very active yellow stingrays. I spent the rest of the trip on this reef with my face in the water when I wasn't at the bar or gorging myself at the resort's restaurant.
Here is a short video of my Montego Bay diving experience:
[vimeo]12388491[/vimeo]
