Each dive site on St. Vincent has a unique landscape and it's own subset
of the area's marine life. Gigantic boulders catapulted from the island's
single volcano into the sea are fine places to find reef fish. Many
unusual creatures can be found in the shallow sandy areas between the
headlands and the sponge-covered gentle slopes. Night diving is particularly
easy and rewarding in these areas.
Almost all the sand on St. Vincent is black and makes a pleasing background
for photographs. A few areas in the southern part of the island have golden
sand.
Most of St. Vincent's dive sites are located within a short distance of
Kingstown, on the leeward (west) coast of the island.
Map of St. Vincent
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Dramatic Dives
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St. Vincent's rugged cliffs and sheer drop offs continue underwater and create
some extraordinary dive sites. Wall dives at "The Wall", along the
side of "New Guinea Reef" and in the deep areas of "Anchor Reef"
support some of the finest forests of black coral. Several species and multiple colors
are found on these dives including the bush-like and spirl whip-like corals. The
corals are larger than divers and come in shades of pink, peach, white, orange, rust,
and green.
It is difficult to tear one's eyes from the mysteriouly beautiful scene created by the featherlike
corals. Focusing down to look for small creatures within and on the corals is a worthwhile endeavor,
particularly for the photographer. Seahorses often curl their tails around a branch, small crabs
and pygmy filefish also hide between the branches. Occasionally small shrimp can be found on the
black wire corals. At night, illuminated by a dive light, the corals colors explode!
Encrusting sponges, tube sponges and gorgonians also cling to the walls. Spanish (or slipper)
lobster, eels, colonial duster worms, frogfish and octopus live along the wall and in the
cracks and crevasses of the walls.
Coral Castles is an outstanding dive, featuring walls that drop off from a ridge just off
the edge of the island. Large brain and star corals near the top of the wall look stunning
in the sunlight. Down the wall, large crevasses, overhangs and swim throughs are perhaps
the most dramatic looking terrain of all the sites.
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"Critter" Dives
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The waters surrounding St. Vincent have some of the most amazing and rare creatures
in the Caribbean. Frogfish and seahorses, spotted drum, flying gurnard and
orange ball corallimorphs are common here. Experienced divers and photographers
will appreciate seeing these creatures in various colors and sizes. However,
even more curious are the white-spotted, black-lined and two spot octopus, short-nosed
batfish, red lipped batfish and red banded lobster that can be found here.
A search of the tube and barrel sponges at Orca Point, The Pinnacle, Turtle
Bay and Anchor Reef will frequently produce several frogfish in various colors.
Yellow, Red, Orange, Black, White, and Butterscotch are the most common. The
Seahorses also come in white, brown, yellow, red, orange and peach just to name
a few colors! They are commonly found at these same sites. Frogfish and seahorses
can even be found in Young Island Cut, between Young Island and the main island
of St. Vincent.
Cleaner shrimp are often hard at work on the eels and scorpionfish. Other places
to search for shrimp are in and under the anemones, under dead pieces of sponge,
in the sand (where golden coral shrimp may hide), at night on the basket stars
and under ledges and in holes where the banded coral shrimp "hole" up.
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"Night" Dives
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Some of the world's best night diving surrounds the island of St. Vincent. There is
something to see everywhere. A large number of crustaceans (crabs, shrimps and lobster),
and eels, come out at night.
At night the coral polyps open to feed making the brain corals look like they are wearing
angora sweaters. The black corals are covered with brittle starfish
and arrow crabs. Brillant orange basket starfish climb atop azure vase sponges
to feed. Some sites have an abundance of decorator crabs, from the small red
cryptic teardrop crabs to the funny looking anemone hermit crabs who have placed
live anemones on their shell homes. Sponge crabs carve a sombrero of red, pink
or brown sponge and clasp it to their heads with a pair of back legs. Although
they believe themselves to be camouflaged, the presence of a piece of red sponge
on a larger brown or gray sponge reveals their presence.
Sleeping fish, especially the parrot fish in their mucus cocoon, allow the diver
to get a closeup look at them.
The colors of the sponges which encrust or stick out of nearly every place at
St. Vincent's dive sites will astound the night diver. During the day, the
depth of the blue water keeps a diver from seeing the true colors. But, at
night, illuminated by a dive light, yellows, reds, oranges, lime greens, blues,
a real rainbow of color can be seen to exist.
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"Sand or Muck" Dives
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Muck diving has become very popular in some diving circles in the past few years. An
amazing number of interesting creatures live in the shallow sand and silty areas
of St. Vincent's dive sites.
The Spoon Nose Eel, a rare eel that burrows tail first into the sand can sometimes be
found day or night. Tiny octopus and box crabs bury themselves so that
only their eyes can be seen peaking out above the sand. The Red Heart Urchins bury
themselves completely. Only a mound of disturbed sand gives them away. Tiny white
pea crabs often live on the underside of these urchins.
Flying gurnard and the
ugly batfish disguise themselves in colors of brown and gray to blend into the muck.
Sometimes it is only their movement that gives them away. Tiny sole flitter here
and there.
Checking the tiny clumps of sponges in the sand, one can find juvenile fish, such
as the beautiful spotted drum, jackknife or queen angelfish. Golden coral shrimp
are common on sponges in the sandy areas of Orca Point and Anchor Reef. Even
seahorses are quite commonly found clinging to a small piece of gorgonian in the
sand or sometimes even swimming out in the open.
Other sand-dwellers found in St. Vincent include the Yellow Head Jawfish,
Blue-Throat Pike Blenny, razorfish, Common Jawfish and Sailfin Blenny.
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