DIVING & SNORKELING

The diving & snorkeling immediately around Ambergris Caye is easily accessible. There is also some environmental degradation to the reef due to its use, although permanent mooring buoys at some sites have reduced anchor damage.

Click here for information on the Great Blue Hole

Divers and snorkelers will enjoy the shallow dives and get to see a good variety of sea life and coral. Those willing to make a larger investment in time and money can use San Pedro as a base for day trips to distant cayes and atolls, which offer some of the best diving & snorkeling in all of the Caribbean. Diving around the atolls is mostly wall diving, while diving around Ambergris is spur-and-groove with some deep canyons, swim throughs and reef cuts.

Heavy wave action from Hurricane Mitch did only limited damage to dive sites around Ambergris Caye. It destroyed some fragile coral, such as elk horn and seafans, especially near the water surface, and caused temporary loss of pigmentation in hard coral, but it scoured out green algae and cleaned out sand.

One of the good things about Ambergris Caye, in the eyes of many, is that it does not cater only to divers. Indeed, the majority of visitors to the island now are not divers, and this means that those who don't dive will not feel they are just extra baggage on a dive machine. Ambergris Caye offers a good mix of dive and non-dive activities. Those who wish to do nothing but dive, eat, sleep, and dive may be better off choosing a dive lodge on one of the remote atolls or a live-aboard dive boat.

Among the popular dive sites around Ambergris Caye are Hol Chan Cut, Tackle Box Canyon, Punta Arena Canyons, Tres Cocos and Basil Jones Canyons.

Two-tank dives around Ambergris Caye typically go for US$45 to $55, averaging US$50. One-tank dives are about US$20 less; three-tank dives about US$20 more. Rates usually include tanks, weights and belts. Other equipment is extra; US$20 is about average for a full set of gear.

Those looking for even better diving likely will consider diving one of Belize's atolls. These are Pacific-style atolls with coral islands surrounding a fairly shallow lagoon. Only four true atolls exist in the Western Hemisphere; three of them are off Belize. Belize's three atolls are Turneffe Islands, Lighthouse Reef, and Glover's. Turneffe and Lighthouse are closest to Ambergris Caye and are practical day trips.

A new marine reserve around the Silk Cayes and Galdden entrance opened recently with whale sharks a major attraction. Click here for more information on whale sharks.

For the more-serious diver, there is variety enough here to make for many weeks of diving. Visibility is terrific, often 150 feet or more. While many of the sites are best for intermediate and advanced divers, some are suitable for novice divers.

From San Pedro, expect to pay about US$125 to US$185 for a day trip to Lighthouse or Turneffe, depending on the number of dives. Lunch is usually included. A typical trip to Lighthouse takes one and a half hours or a little longer each way, includes three dives, lunch and snacks and costs about US$150 per person. Note that sometimes dive trips are canceled if not enough divers sign up for a specific trip.

The Turneffe Islands are about 20 miles east of Belize City. This is the largest atoll and the closest to the mainland. It differs somewhat from the other two atolls in that most of the islands here are densely covered in mangroves, especially on the west side. Black Beauty, Myrtle's Turtle and Mauger Caye (north of the atoll, with a lighthouse) are among the popular dive sites here. Mauger is known for its sharks.

Lighthouse Reef is about 60 miles east of Belize City. Lighthouse is home to Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, comprising about 15 square miles of atoll plus another 15 square miles of surrounding waters. Protected as a marine reserve since 1981, Lighthouse teems with birds, including a nesting colony of rare red-footed boobies. Under water life is also rich here, with dolphins and other creatures.

At Lighthouse also is the Blue Hole, a limestone sinkhole several hundred feet across and more than 400 feet deep, made famous by Jacques Cousteau. Divers usually report that while the Blue Hole is worth doing once, it is more spectacular when seen from the air then from underwater.

Glover's Reef is about 30 miles east of Dangriga. The perimeter of the atoll has elk horn coral forests. Here and in a deeper sandy area is a great variety of fish and sea life, including many sharks. Shark Point, northeast of North Caye with its lighthouse, is well-known for hammerhead and tiger sharks.

San Pedro has the country's only hyperbaric chamber. It's located near the airstrip. Most dive shops ask for a small donation with each tank fill which goes toward funding the chamber.

For those who don't dive but would like to, several Ambergris Caye dive shops offer courses and training. A resort course costs about US$125. This includes classroom training, practice in a pool or in the water, and an actual dive, usually at Hol Chan. Complete open water certification runs US$350 to $400 and requires four days. For those who have completed classroom instruction elsewhere, the two-day open water training is about US$200.

I would rate the safety of dive shops in San Pedro as much higher than dive shops in, say, Florida, where dive shops are afraid to put divemasters in the water with their diving & snorkeling guests. The reason? If a dive shop elects to properly supervise diving activities in Florida, and there is an accident, even a minor one, then the diver can sue the tar out of the dive shop and divemaster. It is actually better for a Florida dive shop to have 5 unsupervised diving deaths a year than have 1 minor supervised diving accident (where, say, a diver has to go to a dive chamber for a few hours treatment, full recovery, and sues dive shop for 50million for "pain and suffering caused").

In Florida, it is standard practice for a dive boat to leave port with 20-45 divers, one captain and one non-diving divemaster. Here in San Pedro we would never dream of such a terrible mis-match of divers to divemasters, and our dives are ALWAYS in-water supervised by qualified divemasters.

Dive shops here are not afraid to tell a guest that the chamber is needed treatment if that guest is feeling funny after diving. The great thing about chamber treatment is that it's fairly routine....the crime is letting mild symptoms get worse by not admitting one of your divers to the chamber because of the potential for getting a bad reputation.

Every serious dive shop on Ambergris Caye has an excellent safety record, and no dive shop can or should claim to have the "best safety record" on the island.

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Welcome to Ambergris Caye (Belize)

ambergriscaye.com

see also:

belizenews.com
belizesearch.com
seborga.net