Diving the Wild Side: Sea Fantasea and Boulder Town

Here in Dominica it is the middle of the summer doldrums. Even in normal times, few tourists travel to Dominica in the months of August and September. In a typical year, we might have French divers visiting in July and August, but with COVID wreaking havoc on our neighbouring islands, and with no ferries running, that business has been non-existent. The frustrating part for us is that at this time of year the ocean is flat calm, with very little wind and often good visibility, making it the perfect time of year to visit the Atlantic sites, or as we like to say: “Diving the wild side.”

The Atlantic dive sites are not necessarily better than those on the point of Scotts Head Peninsula, but they are different, offering a unique vibe.

While not as colorful and full of sponges as the sites inside the Soufriere Scotts Head Marine Reserve (SSMR), they have fantastic stony corals and a wild feel, as if anything could swim by. It is always more challenging to visit these sites, not just due to the rough seas and high winds, but also due to the lack of moorings.

Over the last few summers the Nature Island Dive team has made it a point of spending time getting to know these areas even when we have no clients. We go there to lionfish hunt and to do fish, coral reef and transect surveys. We can confidently claim that our team knows the area better than anybody else.

We have “discovered” several new amazing sites. We cannot lay claim to discovering some unknown treasures, but after almost 30 years of diving here I can tell you that VERY few people have visited these sites!

The first site we call Sea Fantasea

We used to start this dive from the Suburbs mooring, which was not ideal, but it was the only way to reach it. This dive starts with a nice wall (typical for the Atlantic sites) but as you come up into the shallows, it takes on its name. Swimming up any of the dramatic valleys, you find yourself in fields of Sea Fans and stony corals all amongst a maze of large and small rock islands. A completely different feel to every other site!

The second site is truly one of our new favourites: Boulder Town

This site is covered in massive stony corals hundreds and hundreds of years old, huge boulder brains corals, massive starlet coral, mountainous star coral and fields of pencil coral. In this day of threatened stony corals this site is a blessing that all divers should get to see.

With the assistance of the Local Area Management Authority (LAMA), the Ministry of Tourism, Fisheries Division, Dominica Watersports Association and Imran Paquette, we have been helping to set-up new moorings in the Marine Reserve.

The Nature Island Dive team set out markers for the mooring blocks for these new sites. We also marked out several old sites that needed new mooring blocks, such as Lost Horizons.

We have recently installed 12 mooring blocks, both on new sites and on the tried-and-true sites we all love.

At the end of the hurricane season we will install the ropes and mooring bouys so we are ready for the new season. We have already set-up Boulder Town and dived it with clients.

These sites have been great additions to our dive portfolio and we look forward to designing the perfect route for the best experience at this sites. So far we have not found a bad route!

Nature Island Dive is proud of our dive site selection for our clients: Every day we strive to show you the best of Dominica.

Some of our divers have noticed, and commented, that there are popular and famous sites we RARELY ever visit. It’s true and we do not deny it. This is because we do not think they show our best face. Our philosophy is to dive the sites we like; if we don’t like the site why would our clients like it?  We work hard, spend more effort, and plan ahead in order to show off the best of Dominica diving.

Each day we assess the conditions and the skill levels and preferences of our divers; only then do we select the best available dive sites for that day.

Sometimes this means we have to use two boats to cater to different confidence levels and although this is more expensive and might seem like bad business for us, it leads to happy divers and happy divers are always good for business. They will come back for more dives! Choosing different sites of the highest quality also leads to a happier Nature Island Dive team.

Our current divers from New Orleans are on their second visit to us this year and they have accumulated about 60 dives each! We have managed to mix up our dive sites to keep them interested and happy, without visiting our ‘most famous’ site more than once! They have decided return yet again with friends in December. We are very excited that we now have more new and exciting dive sites with new moorings to amaze our dive family.

So if you want to SEE the best while being GUIDED by the best, come and dive with us! Let’s hope the ocean blesses you and allows you to dive on the wild side where you will see 500-year-old stony corals, fields of sea fans, and schools of Atlantic Spade fish.

We hope you enjoyed reading this!
Next month we will tell you about our efforts to survey our reefs and to treat a new invasive disease that is threatening corals from Florida to South America.