Take the plunge in SVG and scuba dive into the famous Bat Cave, try wreck diving, or photograph an amazing variety of marine creatures. Experience the kind of underwater diving adventures found only at the world’s premier dive sites. SVG’s islands are a dream for scuba divers, whatever your level of experience. From easy shallow reef dives to drift dives, wreck dives and even cave dives – the choice is yours. In SVG, most dive sites are just a short boat ride away from the dive shops, whether on the main island of St. Vincent or at the dive centers located in The Grenadines at Bequia, Mustique and Union Island.
Divers will be enthralled by the variety of marine creatures to see, including: frogfish, seahorses, colorful mollusks, crustaceans, anemones, tunicates, nurse sharks, lobsters, octopus and squid. Visiting squadrons of eagle rays and manta rays are frequently sighted, and patrolling reef sharks and barracuda add an element of excitement. The destination is home to so many critters because it has a variety of underwater habitats including walls, rock formations, coral reefs, sandy slopes and beds of sea grass - each attracting its own unique form of life. Many of the resort hotels in St. Vincent & The Grenadines offer Scuba Diving Courses, as do the dive operators themselves.
Dive Sites:
On the main island of St. Vincent the leeward coastline is full of great dive sites, just a short boat ride away from the Dive Centers. Here are just a few of the top dives:
- The Bat Cave is an exhilarating dive into an underwater fissure and is on the wish list of most visiting divers.
- Anchor Reef, voted one of the top 100 dive sites in the world, is a spectacular wall dive with swim-throughs and a lovely coral reef formation.
- Layou Wall is an excellent wall dive and a drift over the formations of Rock Fort.
- Capital Wrecks is the site of three shipwrecks all in recreational dive depths, but best suited to experienced divers.
To the south, our Grenadine islands are rich with color and corals, as well as pelagics.
- In Bequia, explore an array of gently sloping reefs with hawksbill turtles and eagle rays. The shallow waters are home to seahorses, pipefish and bat fish, amongst others.
- Mustique’s sloping reefs and coral expanse offer glimpses of shy spotted drums and banded coral shrimp among other fascinating fish and critters.
- Mayreau Gardens is an expansive coral reef formation and a great drift dive. Crinoids, garden eels and flamingo tongues are common here. Also off Mayreau is Puruni, the wreck of a 1918 British gun ship that is lying in only 40 feet of water, great for beginners as well as advanced wreck divers.
- The Tobago Cays are home to green turtles which provide are can’t miss. Here Horseshoe Reef surrounds and protects four of the five Tobago Cays and makes for great diving, whether on the protected and shallow inside, or along the deeper and more dramatic drop-off on the outside.
- Mopion Reef, just off Petit St. Vincent, can be a good place to see sharks. Nearby is Mopion, a picture-perfect desert island.