St.John's ... how would You rate it ?

Hello,

can anybody with more or less recent experience in diving St.John's let me know, what is really the quality of diving it ? I mean colours, life, and in general all scenery to take some shots or footage ? Been to north, and loved it ... now, I stand a choice of St.Johns vs diving Oman ... tough choice, according to some articles read on this board.
So, how was it ? Was it really great ? Spectacular ? Extraordinary ? Or .. just good dives ?

St. Johns is excellent diving in my opinion.

Can't comment on Oman because I've never been there.

what about quantity of underwater life there ? Seen some movies on Youtube, not really impressing :-(. Any chance for a bigger stuff in October ?

If you're looking for higher possibility of seeing sharks, then try Brothers - Daedalus - Elphinstone itinerary.

Well, seeing sharks is one thing, but I am rather into seeing a lot of life, especially for taking some photos. Shark, whale shark, or a manta is an added value, and of course welcome, but it is rather schools of fish, barracudas, napoleons etc - any chance for a quantity of those ? Turtles ?

We did see sharks, turtles and dolphins on our liveaboard trip there in 2005.

Seeing all that is possible in a St. Johns liveaboard, and even more possible in a Brothers - Daedalus - Elphinstone one.

Been to St Johns last summer. I can't say it was amazing at all. Actually, along the 10-day route (Ras Mohammed- Elphinstone- St Johns) the best site was... Ras Mohammed!

By far better than any other site we passed in this long route. Especially the abundance of fish which was simply said- uncomparable by far.

I am not sure why- been in southern routes also in the past and it was much better. I can only attribute what I've seen last summer in St Johns as a combination of overfishing and too hot water (although Ras Mo was also very hot and still abundant).

Unfortunately, seen fishing boats almost everywhere along the southern route. I don't know which areas are supposed to be nature reserve- if at all...

I would rate St Johns (again, as it was last summer-can be different now) as a "6", Elphinstone was something like a "7-8", RasMo gets a "9" only because it can always get better over there

It is difficult to beat RasMo on a bad day, and almost impossible when it is in a good day. There are just too many sights that put the words out of your mouth with the single thought "this is what I am diving for"