(Click on the dive flags for more info.)

The Dog Islands

Virgin Gorda

Salt Island

Cooper Island

Ginger Island

Norman Island

Peter Island

British Virgin Island Dive Operations

The Dog Islands

Exposed to the ocean, this can be a very exciting dive. Regular sightings include eels, eagle rays and nurse sharks with occasional reef sharks.

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Situated off the West side of tiny Cockroach Island, this area is swept by current and so attracts a range of marine life. Glasseye snappers teem at the bottom of the pinnacle below the southern of the 2 moorings on the site, along with tomtates, bluestriped grunts and gray snapper. As the current picks up coming around the pinnacle, look out for schooling barracuda, horse-eye jacks along with occasional African pompano, permit and spadefish. In the summer months when the bait fish proliferate close in to Cockroach, look out for tarpon, reef shark and eagle rays. A challenging dive due to the variable and sometimes strong currents so please pay close attention to the dive leaders instructions and stay close in the dive group.

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An excellent 2nd dive of a two-tank trip or afternoon dive, the dive site is named after the surge that runs through the site occasionally in the winter months (and can make the site undiveable). An archway leads to a shallow canyon through the reef - on the other side of the canyon the reef curves around to create an amphitheatre effect with soft and pillar corals in the center. A couple of grottos up against the edge of the island along with the overhung lip of the reef 'amphitheatre' provide numerous areas to look for reef fish, lobster and eels. Some people say that this is an underated dive site for amazing color and rock formations

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Exposed to the swells on the North side of George Dog, this site is only available on calm days. Divers are rewarded with a tour around the wash rocks which are undercut with ledges on the West side and canyons on the East side. Right underneath the boat is a 50ft wide, 20ft deep hole in the reef which opens out on one side with a double archway making an interesting start to the tour. This dive is best done in the summer months when the wash rocks attract bait fish which in turn brings in barracuda, mackerel, bonito and large tarpon.

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Similar to the Visibles, this site is washed by sometimes strong currents and so close attention should be paid to the dive leader at this site. Also known as the "yellow fish" dive, the deepest part of the site consists of a trail of boulders leading back up to the mooring which are usually covered in French grunts, porkfish, yellow goatfish and schoolmaster snappers (all yellow !). The name comes from the fact that the site is often 'wall-to-wall' fish. On a good day when the current is flowing we have seen eagle rays and reef shark along with lobster and nurse sharks under the ledges found below the mooring in 35ft of water.

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Another interesting 2nd dive, this site is best done to view the scenery as it does not have as much marine life as other locations. Nestled up against West Dog, the underwater topography consists of numerous large boulders - some up to 25ft high. These produce a large number of available holes and ledges between the boulders and the seafloor - perfect for looking for lobster. The cave itself is a triangular crack in the rock face, open to the air at the top (but narrow) and widening at the base. Providing there is no surge, divers can swim into the cave and are rewarded with a spherical chamber at the end of the cave that is usually filled with glassy sweepers.

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A less regularly visited site, the Flintstones is named for the rocky outcroppings on the west side of West Dog which are supposed to resemble Fred and Barney's home of Bedrock. Underwater, the boulders continue, creating numerous ledges and overhangs for fish and lobster to hide in. Look out for an occasional nurse shark and also Fred's House - a huge boulder that dominates the undersea terrain.

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One of the most famous dives in the dog islands, the Chimney is another site with an unusual underwater structure. A short distance from the dive boat mooring, a small canyon leads through one of the spurs coming off Great Dog. As you swim through, the top of the walls start to come together to form a natural archway covered in multi-colored sponges and delicate orange cup corals (bring a light to fully appreciate the range of colors). At the end of the canyon the walls close off leaving a crack wide enough to swim out through (the exit) - this leads the dive team naturally back towards the moorings and the latter portion of the dive which is usually spent exploring the large coral formations underneath the dive boat.

 

Info from www.caribdiveguide.com As one of the most popular dive sites near the Dogs, there has to be some special attraction. The attractions include an arch, a corridor between two mammoth boulders, and a handful of canyons. You can take in all that plus a series of ridges and sand gullies under the mooring buoys.

We had to wait for the northerly swells to die down before diving the chimney, so do not expect to dive the site unless conditions are relatively calm.

Keen to swim through the chimney, we set off for the headland and find the base of the rocks at 38 feet. As we pass around to the north side, we see the canyon leading to the arch and the Chimney, but we exercise a bit of delayed gratification and continue into the small bay north of the headland.

A large rock is worth exploring on both sides but you cannot circumnavigate it, as the side facing the headland is too shallow. Both sides of the rock are beautifully veneered with wandering rope sponges and encrusting corals.

The depth is never more than 45 feet, so we have ample time to appreciate our environment and to study the arch and the Chimney. Passing first through the canyon leading to the arch, we ascend to around 30 feet.

The arch is everything we had heard. So thickly encrusted, it is hard to know what to look at first. Tiny posies of dainty cup corals are squashed between wads of sponges. Most of the sponges are brightly colored but the most famous is the color of alabaster. Famous, that is, because of their rarity and because at least one famous person, Jacques Cousteau, has singled them out for special mention. The arch rivals any piece of baroque architecture and no artist would have had the audacity to cram so many shapes, colors and textures on one canvas. Nature has no shame, it seems.

Like children eager to show off the area and hoping for a tip at the end, fish follow us around the site, hurrying us along. We pause to watch a brittle star sliding over a sponge, but the yellowtail snappers want us to be on the move.

Disappointingly for them, we have no tip for our faithful followers who are, we suspect, used to being fed.

From the arch we zip through a narrow arcade, equally richly trimmed, and come face to face with the Chimney. It is an extension of the arcade, formed by two slabs of rock, which leaves just enough space for a diver to pass. Please do not act like a bottlebrush as you swim through. The marine life on the walls is very delicate and does not survive scouring by tanks, wet suits and fins. Once through the Chimney, we spin round, hang in the water with our fish friends and watch our bubbles dribbling up through the Chimney.

As we move back to the area under the boat, yet more fish gather, looking for a handout. This area of boulders and ridges is popular with snorkellers and the fish behavior confirmed that fish feeding is a common occurrence here.

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A very different dive from others on the Dog Islands, the south side of Great Dog sports a large traditional coral reef (similar to those on Ginger Island). Another feature is the remains of an small inter-island commuter plane originally operated by the now defunct Atlantic Air BVI. Following an abortive take-off from Beef Island which ended with the plane in the water 200yds off the end of the runway (no-one was hurt), the plane languished in a hangar for some time prior to be dismantled for scrap return to the US. The BVI dive operators were able to persuade the owners to give the fuselage over for use as a dive site and this was sunk in about 50ft of water on the edge of the sand east of the dive boat moorings. All that is left of the plane is the fuselage (no wings, engines or seating inside) which creates a focal point for marine life (include a number of barracuda). The reef itself is very healthy, providing a home to a wide range of reef fish, lobster and the occasional nurse shark or turtle.

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Virgin Gorda

A submerged pinnacle rising to within 4ft of the surface, this is a spectacular dive. Prolific sponge and soft corals give the reef tremendous color. Washed with strong currents, this brings in huge volumes of fish - look out for the large school of permit atop the pinnacle.

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The underwater topography is what makes this site unique - grottos, swim-throughs and underwater archways are all present, with eagle rays and stingrays frequent visitors.

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This dive sites consists of 20-30ft coral heads, teeming with marine life. Home to two resident eagle rays, it is also common to see a school of no less than 200 chub.

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A popular dive site done from the Yacht Harbor, it makes an excellent 2nd dive after a trip to Ginger or Cooper Island. A shallow sandy bottom is decorated with a expanse of granite boulders similar to those found at The Baths, some rising to within 10ft of the surface. An oasis in the middle of the ocean floor, it attracts some of the largest schools and varieties of reef fish anywhere in the BVI. Its lack of depths gives divers time to explore the ledges and holes between the boulders whilst admiring the schools of grunts (French, Spanish, bluestriped, tomtate), snappers (gray, mahogany, schoolmaster), chub, angelfish (queen, French, gray, rock beauty) and many others. An excellent area to look for lobster and eels, we are often treated to a visit from a stingray or nurse shark. Local currents can strengthen so the dive is not always available.

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Salt Island

The Wreck Of The RMS Rhone

Be here by 8am, there are only a couple maybe 3 white buoys/ moorings for non-commercial diver's boats. Anyone who has spent much time diving in the BVI tends to use dives on the RMS Rhone as their unit of measurement. Dive leaders might dive the site two or three times a week. A 2-tank dive will typically be a first dive on the bow and wreckage in the deeper area, with the second dive covering the mid-section and stern. The total number of dives soon adds up.

The RMS Rhone lies where she sank, which is not necessarily the most convenient spot for a dive site. Although close to shore and in relatively shallow water, she lies in a channel that has occasional currents. The currents can be strong enough to make it undiveable, though this does not occur often. There are several mooring buoys for dive boats, yachts and dinghies—see the color coding of buoys at the beginning of this chapter.

There is a short swim from the sand below the boat to the bow. Visibility today is not particularly good and we are quite close before the dark shape of the hull separates itself from the murky water. It is hard to miss, as the bow section alone is more than 150 feet long.

The bow lies on its starboard side, with the foremast stretching outward in the sand. As we trace the line of the mast, we discover the crow’s nest is now like the mast, heavily encrusted with marine life. The life on the mast is a sample of everything that is possible: gorgonians, encrusting sponges, feathery hydroids, bluebell tunicates, along with their loyal population of cleaner shrimps and worms.

The bow section of the hull is also heavily encrusted, but because of its steel construction and the depth providing protection from wave action, it is still largely intact. The exposed deck and interior have formed a latticework of beams that provide a near perfect habitat for sheltering nocturnal fish. We see blackbar soldierfish, squirrelfish, and French and blue-striped grunts in tightly packed schools. Clams and small black coral trees occupy the inside of the hull, a sure sign that this is a protected site.

Swimming through the beams is one attraction of this section of the dive, though there are some worries about the effect of diver’s bubbles on the hull. If you look up as you pass through, you will see pools of air glittering like a mirrored ceiling. As you cruise around the interior, you are likely to come nose to nose with a large barracuda.

Exiting the bow at what was once the mid-section of the ship, we find the boilers and remains of the mid-section. It was the explosion of the boilers as comparatively cold seawater reached them that caused the boat to break in two. One boiler is attached to the mid-section and one lies near the stern.

Although these square lumps offer no interior shelter, they still attract crowds of fish, which school possessively close to the structure. Grunts and mutton snappers predominate and we were fortunate to see a school of juvenile stoplight parrotfish, too.

Watch your air and time, or your computer. The bow is at 75 feet or more, so most stores set a 30 minute limit, regardless of whether or not you are diving with a computer. The swim to the boat takes you back into 40 feet of water, so planning your dive so that you have air for a safety stop is still important.

Dive 2: The Stern section

We begin the dive at the second boiler and move towards the stern of the ship. The wreckage here is more difficult to identify and the ship’s beams stand exposed, at one point appearing like a row of columns in a Greek temple. Sergeant majors and yellowtail snappers weave around the beams begging for crumbs, a sure sign that the fish are fed.

A sudden change of color on a nearby beam alerts us to an octopus trying desperately to match the color of its surroundings. While hovering quietly above it, we see a second octopus jammed into a hole. The octopus in the open seems docile and we conclude that it is in the post breeding stage when the octopus stops feeding and slowly dies.

The treat of this portion is the swim-through at the propeller. At 19 feet across, it is an enormous structure and will be of great interest to those who enjoy wrecks. An alternative pleasure is the delightful cup corals adorning the walls and ceiling like a huge field of buttercups. Not to be outdone, golden crinoids wave to you from the floor.

This is a shallow dive so we have plenty of time to explore the wreck. From here we swim a short way to Rhone Reef before returning to the boat.

Cooper Island

A favorite site with local dive leaders, a dive here almost always provides some of the more unusual marine life. Situated off the East side of Cooper Island, the wash rocks breaking the surface focus the currents running between Cooper and Ginger Islands attracting in a range of fish from schools of horse eye jacks to African pompano, Atlantic spadefish, hawksbill turtles, shark-like cobia and nurse sharks. The shallow waters up against the wash rocks teem with sergeant majors, chromis, creole wrasse and black durgon. However, the currents that bring in life can also make for a challenging dive - the exposed location can make diving here impossible due to rough water and divers should pay close attention to the dive leader if currents are present on the site.

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Another favorite local site, again only possible on calmer days due to its exposed position up against the Eastern shoreline of Cooper Island. Swimming South from the mooring brings the divers to a shelf, 30ft deep on top and ranging from 40 to 55 feet deep at the bottom. As the dive continues, the shelf becomes more undercut, with the rock structure forming a bizarre 'Swiss cheese' lattice which provides numerous hideouts for reef fish and lobster. Schooling reef fish proliferate around the ledge and we have seen large snapper, turtles and tarpon. This makes for an excellent second dive - especially when paired with Dry Rocks East as a first dive.

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Tucked around the southeast corner of Cooper Island, Markoe Point usually enjoys protection from the elements at the mooring. Ahead of the boat, a v-shaped groove with an overhung lip leads divers around the point and onto the eastern edge of the island where the coastline drops vertically from the waterline to about 80ft. This provides for a very imposing underwater vista and gives a focal point for jacks, mackerel, barracuda and occasionally pompano and spadefish.

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Situated South of the Marie L and Pat wrecks, Thumb Rock consists of a giant boulder rising from 60' to within 15' of the surface. Large schools of creole wrasse gather around the boulder along with numerous lobster.

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This twin wreck site consists of the Marie L, a cargo boat intentionally sunk in the early 1990s, and the Pat, a tugboat sunk a few years later that now lies up against the Marie L. Whilst the wrecks themselves provide an interesting feature to explore, be sure to look for the large colony of garden eels slightly to the north of the wrecks and the stingrays that frequent the area - these are much braver than at other sites and will happily swim through the middle of the dive group. Time on the wrecks is limited due to the depth so the dive is completed on the shallower reef (about 40ft) around the dive boat mooring.

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The Inganess Bay (136ft long, 26ft beam) was originally built in Holland in 1950 for a Scottish company. It was purchased in 1988 by Captain Cosmos Sealey who operated in on the trade routes from Puerto Rico to Trinidad until 1996. She ended her career in Road Harbor after snapping her anchor chain in a storm and running aground in front of The Moorings. After assessing the damages, Captain Sealey donated the ship to the BVI Dive Operators for an artificial reef. The ship was cleaned and prepared for diving and finally sunk on 29th August 1996 in 90ft of water between Cooper and Salt Island. The wreck was in immaculate condition until Hurricane Georges in 1998 picked her up, turning her almost  90 degrees - in the process a large amount of the superstructure was destroyed amidships and around the bridge. She still remains an interesting dive, providing a focal point in the desert of sand for jacks, mackerel, barracuda and occasionally pompano and stingrays.

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The site gets its name from cistern-like holes in the reef. A great place to look for eels and nurse sharks.  Watch for 3-4 knot current.

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Based around a pinnacle which barely breaks the surface, this is one of the most colorful dive sites in the area. A huge stand of pillar coral along with abundant marine life provide the most experienced diver with a memorable dive.

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Ginger Island

Situated off the South shore of Ginger Island, this site provides a very different underwater landscape to other BVI areas. A healthy spur and groove coral reef runs below the dive boat (moored in about 60ft) and slopes up towards the island to a minimum depth of about 35ft. Numerous large mushroom shaped coral heads ahead of the mooring give the site its name and provide shelter for reef fish, lobster and spotted morays. Whilst this area does not boast the abundant fish of other islands, the health of the corals makes this dive popular

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As with Alice, Ginger Steps enjoys some of the healthiest corals in the BVI. The site is further East along Ginger Island, tucked up against the tip of South Bay providing better protection from ocean swells and making for a calmer dive. The dive boat moors in 35ft on the top of the 3 'steps' that make up the site. The reef then slopes down to the 2nd sandy step at 50ft before dropping away to the 3rd step (the sea floor) at about 90ft. Numerous reef fish species make their homes in the healthy star and brain coral heads and we have also seen pompano, eagle rays and turtles cruising along the slopes.

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On the North side of Ginger Island, this site is almost always flat calm, providing a restful location for surface interval and second dive. Again, a huge healthy coral reef runs the length of the island starting at about 25ft under the boat and falling away to the sandy bottom at about 50ft. This is usually a very slow paced dive, giving the group plenty of time to explore the holes and ledges in the reef for lobster, octopus and the occasional turtle - also look out for small stingrays out on the sand.

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A large rock facing the open ocean, this site is open to current flows. A favorite site for schooling sennet, the exposed rock face is often visited by larger pelagics - look out for reef shark, barracuda and mackerel.

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Norman Island

1 mile south of Norman Island, Santa Monica Rock, named for the ship that foundered there, features two pinnacles that support one of the greatest varieties of fish life in the BVIs' National Park system. The rock rises from the sea floor 100 ft deep to within 10 ft of the surface. I counted 27 species during one dive. As you drop down to 90 feet and begin a slow upward spiral to their crowns, the resident school of barracuda will find you. An open ocean location ensures some surface chop, but you are rewarded with reef sharks, eagle rays, nurse sharks, tuna and African pompano.

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Second in fame only to The Baths is the snorkeling at The Caves on Norman Island. Two yacht-sized grottoes lead you beneath the island where the real treasure is the quiet beauty of light shimmering on wet walls and limpid pools filled with silversides, squirrelfish, snappers and sergeant majors. Free-diving down off a kayak makes you part of the darting, lambent dynamics of their lives in a way bubble-blowing off a diesel boat can't. (good snorkeling)

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North of Norman Island, Robert Louis Stevenson's inspiration for Treasure Island, rise four pinnacles from waters of martini clarity. The calm shallows on one side let snorkellers photograph trumpet fish, rock beauties and black durgon flitting among the horn and star corals. For divers, a tunnel at 15 feet leads to a shallow basin and a cave filled with glassy sweepers, lobsters under ledges, and morays among the fire coral. One of the BVIs' best shallow spots.

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Peter Island

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This page last updated March 14, 2002

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