Bahamas Scuba Diving Resorts
Cool! I've never seen anything like it! How big was
it?" Halfway out of my dive gear, I paused to listen to the excited
comments of the other divers. We had just finished the final dive of a three-day
tour around the Bimini chain - the site was a shallow patch reef known as
Quattro that consisted of several large coral heads.
I had found a number of interesting macro subjects, from scarlet lady shrimp to
jackknife still in the juvenile phase, but nothing big.
Questioning the boat's divemaster as he cleared the last rung of the ladder, I
expected to hear about a rendezvous with a loggerhead turtle or a passing
hammerhead shark. His answer was enough to make my jaw drop.
His
group had spent several minutes swimming with a sawfish of some 8 to 9 feet in
length. I was shocked. This bizarre member of the shark clan, sporting a long
bill equipped with sharp, spiked teeth on both sides, normally inhabits bays and
river mouths where it can use its medieval-looking weaponry to swipe through
schools of fish in poor visibility, effectively reducing them to quivering
sashimi. Running into a sawfish on a shallow reef was a very unusual and
improbable event.
I shouldn't have been surprised. Over the years, I've learned that in the waters
of the Bahamas, you can expect the unusual and improbable.
A Bit of Everything
Rising from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, the Bahamas consist of
more than 700 islands and cays, all set within a huge expanse of shallow reefs
and sand flats. Known as banks, these shoal waters form a 750-mile arc between
the Florida Peninsula and the island of Hispaniola.
Above water, the Bahamas offer everything from the solitude of the deserted Out
Islands to the glitter of world-class resorts in Freeport and Nassau. Below the
surface, divers will find diverse landscapes that range from turquoise sand
flats and colorful patch reefs to high-relief coral pinnacles and precipitous
walls.
As a result of this diversity, the Bahamas can offer something for every type of
diver. For example, the south shore of New Providence Island offers miles of
white-sand bottom punctuated by occasional patch reefs. Here, divers can tour
the Bahamas' largest collection of shipwrecks in benign conditions and depths of
60 feet or less. Just a few miles away, more adventurous souls can hover
alongside a coral-encrusted wall or watch Divemasters feed a swarming school of
reef sharks.
Grand Bahama, Andros, the Abaco chain, Bimini, Long Island and other
destinations throughout this island chain offer a similar mixed bag of diving
excitement. In the course of a weekend, divers can enjoy wreck dives, dolphin
encounters and shark feedings in shallow, protected waters or go a bit farther
out for some high-voltage drift and wall diving.
Among the southern Bahamas are several islands that offer precarious vertical
drops beginning as shallow as 45 feet. San Salvador, Conception Island and Rum
Cay are not part of the Bahamas' larger system of sub-sea plateaus. Instead,
they are individual, partially submerged mountain peaks rising from the abyss
11,000 feet below.
According to some historians, the island of San Salvador was the first landfall
made by Columbus on his momentous voyage in 1492. Others contend that it could
have been Conception Island. One thing is for sure: the notoriety of discovery
did little to change the course of island history. Five hundred years later, San
Salvador's population would barely fill a high school gymnasium and uninhabited
Conception Island can only be reached by boat.
Mysteries and Wonders
Although geologists theorize that the entire Bahamian range resulted
from massive tectonic uplifts millions of years ago that created a series of
broad, sub-sea plateaus, some have taken the more colorful belief that it is the
lost continent of Atlantis.
Either way you look at it, the Bahamas are full of mysteries and wonder. For
example, what created the Tongue of the Ocean? This colossal chasm separates two
of the Bahamas' larger plateaus with depths approaching 7,000 feet!
Or
for that matter, what are the strange, dark-blue circles often seen in the
middle of the Banks? Known as Blue Holes, these pothole-like structures may
measure 200 feet across and can drop to beyond 300 feet. Scientists postulate
that these holes are the remnants of huge subterranean caverns with collapsed
ceilings. According to island lore, they are the home of a giant sea monster
known as the Lusca and the tidal ebb and flow of water from these holes is said
to be the monster's breath.
Fishy Waters
In addition to varied undersea terrain, the Bahamas are known for
their diversity of marine life.
Species ranging from lobsters and conch to grunts, snappers, groupers, sharks
and rays use the region's shallow reefs, grass beds and sand flats as nursery
grounds - and prime hunting territory.
Hawksbill, green, loggerhead and leatherback turtles tipping the scales at up to
800 pounds roam from open ocean into the shallows, while deepwater game fish
such as marlin, tuna, wahoo and dorado may swim within a few hundred yards of an
island drop-off. And, of course, there are the sharks that have become one of
the Bahamas' greatest underwater attractions.
From staring down a 200-pound reef shark to shadowing an angelfish through a
forest of sea fans, the waters of the Bahamas offer something for every breed of
fish watcher, wild or mild.
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