Ocho Rios

Any good diving there, or should I leave my gear at home? For that matter
is there any good diving in Jamaica at all these days?

"Da Parrot-chick" <just@sk.me> wrote in message
news:yNVVa.126072$Io.10720695@newsread2.prod.itd.e arthlink.net...
> Any good diving there, or should I leave my gear at home? For that matter
> is there any good diving in Jamaica at all these days?
>

Been to Ocho 3 times, dove once. Dove Coral Garden and Carib Trench.
Although I had read about the quality of diving there, I just wanted to say
I dove Jamaica. It was everything I expected......lifeless.

Jeff

I've done about 20 dives in the Ocho Rios area - out on the walls the vis
was excellent (80-100') and the coral was ok deep. Now the fish were another
matter - very scared little fish - why? Get up at sunrise and see how the
locals (it is their island) figure what's for dinner!
Mike

One more thought - be careful who you dive with. One dive we had a local
"divemaster" who told everyone in the group to stay on the bottom while he
surfaced from 40'. Then I saw the boat come and pick him up. After a few
minutes I surfaced to see what was up - he said he was too tired to dive (he
looked fine) and we could do what we wanted to! We did.

Mike

mike_suttonm (Michael Sutton) wrote:
>
> We didn't dive in Ocho Rios, because of scheduling problems....
> But the water there wasn't "clear" at the beach. If you were
> chest deep, you could barely see your feet.

Hmmm...maybe its a bit turbid from all the rivers that enter into the
sea there? IIRC, there's seven of them (despite the city's name).

-hh

There were new divers who thought they had hired a safe divemaster to watch
out for them. I was not paid to do that.

Mike

"jer" <gdunn@airmail.ten> wrote in message
news:bgki1t$hjt@library1.airnews.net...

> The majority of dynamite fishing isn't an activity that puts food on
> their table, it puts money in their pocket from the international
> aquarium trade.

The aquarium fish are paying Jamaicans to kill off their wild cousins? Or
is there a new fad to display dead fish in aquariums?

Greg Mossman wrote:
> "jer" <gdunn@airmail.ten> wrote in message
> news:bgki1t$hjt@library1.airnews.net...
>
>
>>The majority of dynamite fishing isn't an activity that puts food on
>>their table, it puts money in their pocket from the international
>>aquarium trade.
>
>
> The aquarium fish are paying Jamaicans to kill off their wild cousins? Or
> is there a new fad to display dead fish in aquariums?

The dynamite doesn't kill all the little fish, in fact, most are
scooped up in surface nets. The survivors are exported to aquarium
fish traders.

And dynamite isn't the only method - some use cyanide gas. Released
up-current, it drifts across the coral stunning everything. The fish
rarely die from this method, but the coral always does. You'll notice
the patches of bleached coral without the huge holes in the middle -
that's cyanide.

--
jer email reply - I am not a 'ten' ICQ = 35253273
"All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of
what we know." -- Richard Wilbur