Daryl Morse
Contributor
Just got back from a week at Runaway Bay (north coast of Jamaica). Stayed at a Breezes, which is a SuperClubs all-inclusive resort. Went diving every day so I thought I'd provide some comments.
This was my first tropical diving experience so I can't compare it to any other tropical diving. Having read a lot of derogatory comments about diving in Jamaica before the trip, I didn't have high expectations. Since I normally dive in Vancouver, it would have been a good experience for no other reason than the 84-86F water temperature. Due to the heavy rain in the region, the vis wasn't great, but since I'm used to diving with a light, it wasn't an issue.
I'm sure people who dive at Bonaire or Coz would have been disappointed, but I enjoyed it as a first time tropical diving experience. The sites I went to were all in the bay including the wall, the airplanes, the shipwreck, and the old pier. I did one shore dive to the edge of the wall and back. It was actually one of the better dives in terms of variety of life that I saw. On one of the dives, the boat dropped us off at the shipwreck and we returned to the shore. We also did some drift dives.
The bay is definitely suffering from overfishing, but there are a lot of varieties of fish and marine life including hard and soft coral and many different types of sponges. I saw sea turtles, rays, puffer fish and schools of small fish on almost every dive. I also saw a few moray eels. There is a full-grown adult living in the shipwreck. I also saw some crabs, spiny lobsters and a few schools of squid. On one of the dives, there was a small barracuda, but I missed it.
Unfortunately, I saw fish traps on almost every dive and it's likely that this is the reason why there are very few fish larger than a foot long. It's a shame that the local people have no alternative but to fish, because the bay could be beautiful dive site if it was left alone for the fish populations to grow.
Anyway, that's my observation.
This was my first tropical diving experience so I can't compare it to any other tropical diving. Having read a lot of derogatory comments about diving in Jamaica before the trip, I didn't have high expectations. Since I normally dive in Vancouver, it would have been a good experience for no other reason than the 84-86F water temperature. Due to the heavy rain in the region, the vis wasn't great, but since I'm used to diving with a light, it wasn't an issue.
I'm sure people who dive at Bonaire or Coz would have been disappointed, but I enjoyed it as a first time tropical diving experience. The sites I went to were all in the bay including the wall, the airplanes, the shipwreck, and the old pier. I did one shore dive to the edge of the wall and back. It was actually one of the better dives in terms of variety of life that I saw. On one of the dives, the boat dropped us off at the shipwreck and we returned to the shore. We also did some drift dives.
The bay is definitely suffering from overfishing, but there are a lot of varieties of fish and marine life including hard and soft coral and many different types of sponges. I saw sea turtles, rays, puffer fish and schools of small fish on almost every dive. I also saw a few moray eels. There is a full-grown adult living in the shipwreck. I also saw some crabs, spiny lobsters and a few schools of squid. On one of the dives, there was a small barracuda, but I missed it.
Unfortunately, I saw fish traps on almost every dive and it's likely that this is the reason why there are very few fish larger than a foot long. It's a shame that the local people have no alternative but to fish, because the bay could be beautiful dive site if it was left alone for the fish populations to grow.
Anyway, that's my observation.
