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For a morning 2 Tank Dive (DTD or
2TD) - St Maarten offers some really great diving along the South
coast. With a combination of reefs and wrecks there is
something for everyone. Fish life is varied and quite
prolific and the shark, turtle and stingray population is
abundant – especially the sharks in the Man of War Shoal
Marine Park area. Dives are generally kept to 45 minutes to
minimize the surface interval. With an average depth of 55ft
and very little current our sites are considered “easy
profile”; however these dive sites are all ¼ to ¾ miles off
the coast and as such are considered “open ocean” dive
sites.
Dive sites are decided on the
morning of the dive as they are weather dependent, and the
site chosen may change on the way out if another dive boat
is already on that mooring. Generally the dive boat tries to
take you to the best site for the day – after all the dive
masters want to have a good dive too :)
For an afternoon Single Tank Dive
(STD) -
While the dive shops sometimes schedule a single dive to the
above sites, most single tank dive trips, Discover Scuba and
training dives will be to Little Bay. This dive site is a
nice, shallow, inshore dive site that all the dive shops use
for training. Surface conditions are always calm.
Visibility, averaging 40 to 50ft, is not as good as the off
shore dive sites. While this dive site does have a diverse
fish population, and can have turtles and even spotted eagle
rays, it does not have the sharks and larger fish and coral
population you will find on the deeper sites. I enjoy this
dive site every time, but then I am happy blowing bubbles in
a swimming pool. It may also be possible for non-divers to
join the boat as snorkelers or “riders”.
Shark Diving – there is no “shark
feed dive” as it has been banned on the island. While sharks
are never guaranteed, they are very common on any of the
dive sites in the Man of War Shoal Marine Park. The smaller
sharks are not shy and often swim right between the divers.
Some dive shops offer a “shark dive” which simply goes out
to a dive site more frequented by the sharks and each offers
shark awareness information before and after the dive.
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