Equipment Recommendations

Introduction

The waters of Dominica are protected: the Southern end of the island is the Soufriere Scott’s Head Marine Reserve, while in the north you’ll find the island’s first marine reserve, the Cabrits Marine Reserve. To preserve the environment, divemasters and instructors in Dominica employ a strict “look but don’t touch policy”, asking that the only things you leave are bubbles, while you are free to take pictures and wonderful memories. Visitors to our island of natural wonders are required to pay a small marine park user fee which goes back into maintenance and upkeep of moorings and the parks. All dive sites have permanent moorings and there are plans for more up and down the coast as more sites are found and explored. The possibility of new protected areas is also being considered to preserve this pristine underwater environment.

Unlike many of our neighbours, the sands of Dominica are predominantly dark to black, which tends not to reflect light and gives the impression of very dark deep water — this is not the case in many areas. The mooring of private/charter yachts is forbidden in these areas and safe areas to anchor or moor in front of hotels along the coast are easy to find. All diving in our waters is required by law to be done through a dive centre.

Although dive staff pride themselves in being able to point out the rare and uncommon, the deep waters off the island also draw in big pelagics from time to time. So make sure to look up once in a while, you never know what’s out there: whale sharks, dolphin, and on one occasion a pilot whale cruised close by a group of divers intent on finding the hidden creatures on the bottom.

Many of the world’s top underwater photographers make Dominica a regular stop, some annually.

New species of invertebrate were found in 2001 on a very shallow dive off the shore. Film crews from National Geographic, The BBC Natural History Unit, as well as many others are regular visitors, filming both the beautiful reefs and the many marine mammals offshore. Creatures such as frogfish and seahorse, rare in other regions, are common here. And Dominica is also known as the Whale-Watching Capital of the Caribbean.

As with all dive sites here, “the slower you go, the more you will see.” The reefs are granite based, so there are comparatively few spaces for nocturnal and hard-to-find species to hide by day. This is what draws photographers and marine creature watchers to our island.