Exotic diving in the Caribbean

i found this very cool website on diving in northern dominica...not an area
many of us know about....i spent hours looking at all the video clips, and
i must admit i'm pretty impressed with all the creatures and critters...

it also has literally thousands and photos of dominica, land and
underwater...cool

check it out and dream of your next vacation

man <y@y.com> wrote in news:Xns963A12101F8Exxcom@216.168.3.44:

> i found this very cool website on diving in northern dominica...not an
> area many of us know about....i spent hours looking at all the video
> clips, and i must admit i'm pretty impressed with all the creatures
> and critters...
>
> it also has literally thousands and photos of dominica, land and
> underwater...cool
>
> check it out and dream of your next vacation
>

whoops, i'm a fool !!!!!

the website was

http://www.liquidguru.com

that should help

is this some kind of scam. I've dived off Domenica -- yes... it is far better
than the Dominican Republic but Dominica lies in that outer fringe of the
Caribbean bordered by the Atlantic where the diving is weak.

man wrote:

> i found this very cool website on diving in northern dominica...not an area
> many of us know about....i spent hours looking at all the video clips, and
> i must admit i'm pretty impressed with all the creatures and critters...
>
> it also has literally thousands and photos of dominica, land and
> underwater...cool
>
> check it out and dream of your next vacation

hi,

i've been diving in dominica, and i found that the health of the reef
there was unsupassed anywhere else in the caribbean....very very clean,
the most abundant and colorful sponges i have ever seen anywhere

i was fortunate to see frogfish, seahorses, sand eels, flying gurnards,
sting rays, eagle rays, turtles (both hawksbills and leatherbacks),
octopus, plus many other critters (loads of puffers, eels and spotted
drum)

granted there are not many big big schooling fish, but the macro stuff
more than made up for it...

i checked out the liquidguru site and was amazed at everything they had
on video and photos..

it made a very refreshing change to dive somewhere where polution and
over-crowding do not exist, on an island filled with waterfalls, virgin
rainforest and friendly people...i agrre with the first post that it
realy was exotic diving in the caribbean

Daniel Kessler <dkessler@pop.cybernex.net> wrote in
news:42618F98.717AAC60@pop.cybernex.net:

> is this some kind of scam. I've dived off Domenica -- yes... it is
> far better than the Dominican Republic but Dominica lies in that outer
> fringe of the Caribbean bordered by the Atlantic where the diving is
> weak.
>
> man wrote:
>
>> i found this very cool website on diving in northern dominica...not
>> an area many of us know about....i spent hours looking at all the
>> video clips, and i must admit i'm pretty impressed with all the
>> creatures and critters...
>>
>> it also has literally thousands and photos of dominica, land and
>> underwater...cool
>>
>> check it out and dream of your next vacation
>
>

jack black wrote:

> hi,
>
> i've been diving in dominica, and i found that the health of the reef
> there was unsupassed anywhere else in the caribbean.

but your post does not indicate where else have you dived? So what are you
comparing Dominca's reefs to? Have you been to Little Cayman, Belize, Bon
Aire, etc.? When was the last time that you heard of any dive charters
taking clients to explore Dominica's marvelous reefs, as you would have it.
Eco-tourism is alive and well there with clients who might take an
occasional dive to round out the trip. But Dominica is not a diving
destination by any stretch.

the critters you mention are too small to make a meal and that's probably
why they can still be found or can shimmy through the chicken wire
enclosures that the locals have spread along the reef in so many locations
in order to pillage the reef. Those locals have got to eat too!

Oh, you forget to note that the only reef they have is on the non-Atlantic
side of the island, which means that 1/2 of the island is not diveable
because of the prevailing strong surf and surges on the rough Atlantic side.

My word, what alot of posotive and negative stuff.

i'm the owner of liquidguru, and i've spent four years diving in roatan and
utila, i've also been diving in st lucia, antigua, thailand, st thomas,
exmouth, galapogos, el salvdor, the med etc etc etc...

yes, dominica has it's problems with fish traps....at least it doesn't
dynamite it's reefs or use cyanid....i chose to teach diving here becuase,
for the caribbean, it has the healthiest reef i have seen (i mean reef, as
in hard corals and sponges)...where i dive in the north (and we do dive in
the atlantic, admittedly when weather permits) is pristine...we have had,
for the last eight years, a group of scientist from the University of B.C.
who come diving here looking for sponges for research into cancer, and they
come here becuase the reef is so diverse and healthy...they say that a dive
site called Toucari Caves has the most bio-diversity of any dive site they
have been to in the world (and they dive everywhere) with the exception of
PNG.

Now i understand that everyones idea of what a dive destination should
offer varies. in my experience of diving with divers in dominica, the
overwhelming majority of them found that diving here was a unique
experience, in a good way...most experienced divers saw things they had
never seen before in other destinations and they all enjoyed never seeing
another group of divers in the water....

Dominica is one of the poorest countries anywhere. No commercialisation,
big companies...what this means is that the population is very very poor,
hence the fish traps....if more divers came, then more money would be spent
and marine management could be enforced

i have no idea why dive charters do not come here. There are more than
enough divesites up and down the caribbean side to satisfy any dive live-
aboard boat for two weeks......

i do not know where you dived in Dominica, Daniel, and you obviously did
not have a good time...that can happen anywhere in the world at any
destination. I really beleive that Dominica offers very interesing
diving....i do not own a diveshop here, i am just a very poorly paid
instructor...i love living here because the island is so unique and because
the diving keeps me excited, day in day out, which for me is the most
important thing

oh yes, rodales regularily lists dominica as one of the top dive
destinations in the world, in survey's which are based on divers votes.

"Kaj Maney via ScubaMonster.com" <forum@ScubaMonster.com> pounded away
at his keyboard resulting in:
:yes, dominica has it's problems with fish traps....

What sort of problems?

Dan Bracuk
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.

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fish traps are the chicken wire enclosures that danial talks about.

basically the fish swim in and they can't swim out. the fishermen have a
set of rules about the size of chicken wire used (which they usally stick
to), the ammount of time they are allowed to leave the trap in the water,
the position of the trap (it shouldn't rest on the reef) and the fact it
should be marked...the last three points are rarely adhered to. it is
always upsetting to me to run across fish traps on the reef..i wish there
was more management, so that there were designated fishing ares, nursery
areas and diving areas which would keep everyone happy, but due to both
lack of money (therefore no way to enforce rules) and lack of comittment
from the relevant authorities, this is unlikey to happen in the near
future. this is a problem all over dominica, even in the official marine
reserve in the south...i mean, how can you have a marine reserve and have
fish traps in it??

the fish caught in the fish trap are usaully small, and typically consist
of tang, puffers, snapper, eels (they go through the holes, eat a fish,
then can't get out again), spotted drum, flounder, octopi....because the
fish are so small they boil everything into a soup and called it 'fish
water'...

again, the population is poor, and i cannot blame the locals for wanting to
eat...however, proper marine managment would go a long way to encourage
bigger fish back on to the reef, and therefore bigger catches in allowed
fishing areas....i can but hope....

there is still a large amount of fish all over (or under) dominica..fish
traps have been around for decades, and the fish populations haven't
changed in the last ten years or so....but you will not see many big
grouper in dominica, though you do get quite a few big snapper on the
deeper dive sites

--
Message posted via http://www.scubamonster.com

> the fish caught in the fish trap are usaully small, and typically consist
> of tang, puffers, snapper, eels (they go through the holes, eat a fish,
> then can't get out again), spotted drum, flounder, octopi....because the
> fish are so small they boil everything into a soup and called it 'fish
> water'...

I got so angry that I took my diving knife and wrecked a few of these chicken
wire enclosures. I just couldn't bear to see "my friends" inside there -- the
small reef fish that wouldn't make a decent meal.

you are right, it would be lovely to have bigger fish on all the reefs...

all i can say is that, from talking to sail boats who have been diving up
and down the eastern caribbean, they all say that their favourtie diving
was in dominica...i have had many divers who have dived all over the owrld
who also say the same thing...now, we are all different people, and enjoy
different things in life, so i think it's safe to say that dominica suits
some and not others...

i spent four years diving in roatan, in the western caribbean, and that
island is surrounded by reef, starting from the surface and going way way
down....the reef was full of overhangs, underhangs, canyons, caves, swim-
thrus....not quite as a healthy reef as here, but very very beautiful...if
you enjoyed little cayman, i would highly recommend roatan, not only is it
very good diving, it is also probably the best value diving in the world
(10 dives for US$150)...chances to see whale sharks and dolphins, no
crowds, especially if you aviod the big resorts (AKR) and stay in the West
End, where you can get fantastic accomodation for around US$40 a night...

--
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