Beautiful beaches, crystal clear waters, blue holes, exotic marine life, endless reefs, caves, wall dives, shipwrecks, and more await you in the Bahamas. That just leads us to think, let’s go snorkeling and scuba diving in the Bahamas. Such a simple statement is really a complex situation. Where in the Bahamas should we go for scuba diving and snorkeling?
The Lucayan Archipelago, also known as the Bahamas Archipelago, is the home of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of Turks and Caicos. While often considered a portion of the Caribbean, The Bahamas is in fact contained in the Atlantic Ocean. The Bahamas has over 700 islands and 2,400 Cays. If you exclude small privately owned islands and cays with single-family homes, only 30 of the 700 islands are considered inhabited. Tourism, with snorkeling and scuba diving being a large part, is one of the leading industries. Outside of New Province Island and Grand Bahamas Island. Tourism is often the main industry.
Snorkeling and Scuba Diving, The Bahamas’ Main Island
Generally, the Bahamas is looked at in two groupings, the Main Islands, and the Out Islands. In the 1980s, many started to refer to the Out Islands as the Family Islands. Nassau, the country’s capital, and largest city, is located on New Providence Island. Freeport, the second most populated city, is located on Grand Bahamas Island. These two islands, along with a few small islands located nearby, are considered the main islands. They have about 85% of the entire population of the country. Abaco Island is the next heavily populated with less than 5%, the remaining 10% are scattered over the remaining islands and cays.
This is the first of a series of articles that will look at many of the 17 destinations within the Bahamas. We will start with Scuba diving the Bahamas' main islands.
Scuba Diving Nassau and New Providence Island
While Nassau and New Providence Islands do have other industries, such as banking, tourism plays a major role in the Islands' livelihood. Nassau’s Lynden Pinding International Airport (LPIA) is the major airport in the Bahamas and the fourth busiest in the Caribbean. Nassau is also a leading cruise port, bringing millions of guests to the island each year. Most tourist visiting the Bahamas spend their time here. Scuba divers and snorkelers will find that there are excellent dive sites to explore.
Divers will find a wide range of dive sites offering something for just about every diver’s taste, only just about, since ice divers will definitely feel left out as the water temperatures range from 75 degrees to 85 degrees year-round. Low visibly divers will likely be disappointed as well, visibility here is generally over 100 feet, sorry. Stuart Cove has an amusing story about the visibility and movie-making underwater around the island. The production team for “Speed 2” came to the Bahamas to shoot some key underwater scenes. After the first day of shooting, the director reviewed the work and sent the team back out to reshoot the previous day’s work, he found it unacceptable. The reason was the scenes were so clear, that he believed viewers would think it was photographed in a pool and not the ocean. The outstanding conditions have led Nassau to be dubbed the “Underwater Hollywood”. The approximately 50 dive sites around the islands include some that many James Bond fans will recognize, as a number of those film’s underwater scenes were shot here, and the props are ready for your visit.
Several dive sites are near the “Tongue of the Ocean”. The “Tongue of the Ocean” (TOTO locally) is a deep water trench ( 3,300 feet to 6600 feet deep) along the coast of Andros Inland 150 miles long and 20 miles wide. It separates Andros Island from New Providence. Shallow coral reefs form a platform around the edge of the deep trench. One of my most memorable dives was here, a shallow wreck dive alongside a reef with dozens of sharks that came up out of the deep.
The Bahamas is well known for its shark dives, you will frequently see sharks on most dive sites. Many dive centers will have shark dives that feature encounters with sharks, including shark feeding. If you are not a fan of feeding marine life, you still can encounter sharks outside of the feeding dives.
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Here are a few not to miss dive sites:
·James Bond Wrecks: To many people, the TV Show Sea Hunt (Older Generation) and James Bond movies may have given us our first exposure to the undersea world. Setting aside the spear gun-toting villains, we saw unbelievable sights. The film “Never Say Never Again” included a tug sunk for the movie, given the name Tears Of Allah. Near this 92-foot-long tug is a mock Vulcan bomber that was a prop for the earlier “Thunderball” movie. Since the movies were made, coral and other marine life have taken over the items. Visibility at these sites is outstanding, one of the reasons this site was chosen for the filming. At its deepest point, the “Tears of Allah”, is 45 feet deep. This makes it suitable for Open Water divers. Of course, photographers love these two items as well. Wreck divers are able to do penetration dives into the tug. The small size of the tug and the nearness of the two objects allows for both to be explored on a single tank.
Shark Dive Adventure: This is a set of dives conducted by Stuart Cove dive center, the leading dive center in the Bahamas and recognized worldwide. There are two sets of dive sites: Shark Wall and the Arena, or Shark Wall North and the Runway (Arena North). Local conditions will determine which set you will dive at. All the dive sites are near the TOTO. The first dive is on a reef frequented by Caribbean Reef Sharks. The depth is between 45 feet and 60 feet, so available to all certified divers. The second dive is a controlled feed. Divers sit in a semicircle around the feeder, who wears a protected suit and has a bait box. There is no chumming, and the feeding is light so as to not impact the shark’s behavior and diet.
Lost Blue Hole: While the Blue Hole in Belize is the best known, the Bahamas have several blue holes. A blue hole was once a sink hole until water levels rose and flooded it. The Lost Blue hole is about 10 miles (ca16 km) from the island. The hole is about 75 feet across (ca 25 meters) surrounded by a sandy bottom. The dive drops down below recreational limits. The water is crystal clear and marine life is abundant.
Grand Bahamas
Freeport in Grand Bahamas is also a tourism haven. While not as well visited as Nassau, Freeport does have a solid tourism industry. It also has a strong scuba diving and snorkeling industry. Like Nassau, Freeport also has a history of underwater filming. Many of the early Sea Hunt TV programs were filmed here. Shark dives are common here, however, you will find a number of dive sites featuring tiger sharks or hammerheads that are not as common in Nassau. Grand Bahamas has an extensive cave network, offering cave divers outstanding opportunities. There are also many dive sites that feature tunnels and caverns which do not require cave training.
Before we move on, cruise ships visit here daily, so if you are taking a cruise you could add in a day of diving. Many of the dive operators will have times set to accommodate cruise ship guests. Also, there is a ferry service to Freeport from Florida. It is about a five-hour trip. Here are a few of the dive experiences awaiting you in Grand Bahamas:
Dolphin Experience: UNEXSO is one of the original dive operators in the Bahamas and over the years has been instrumental in marine research. Their Dolphin dive program takes you diving in the open ocean where dolphins are known to be found. Some of these were previously held in captivity and released back to the wild, and they may respond to hand signals.
Theo’s Wreck: Theo’s wreck was a 228-foot (ca 70 meters) cement hauler that was intentionally sunk by UNEXSO in 1982. The wreck is in 100 feet of water and sits on her side. The ship was prepared for divers, and penetration dives to the cargo hold and the engine room are possible for trained wreck divers. The wreck is near the slope of the continental shelf, so you will find large pelagic species dropping in for a visit.
Tiger Beach: A hour's boat ride from the island will bring you to a shallow, sandy bank. Here, divers will find dozens of sharks, with four or five different species normally seen on each dive. The star of the show will be the tiger sharks, who can often be 12 feet long.
Ben’s Cave: Located on land in the Lucayan National Park, Ben’s Cave is called a blue hole, however, it is similar to the cenotes found in Mexico. The upper portion is clear fresh water. As you go deeper, you will enter a halocline and find yourself in salt water with limited visibility. The dive site does have a cavern as well as an entrance to an underwater cave system. The cave system is believed to be the largest in the world.
Bahamas Diving Is For Everyone
The diving in the main islands of the Bahamas is amazing. The diver that is also there as a tourist or traveling with a non-diving partner will appreciate the other activities available. Traveling and diving to the Out Islands will present a different experience. Tourist activities may be more limited, and scuba diving and other water sports are the reason most people are there. More on that later.
This video is a more scientific presentation of the Tongue of the Ocean
