Destination Fact File
A great place for beginner liveaboard divers with the bonus of seeing shark feeding.
Scattered over 1,500 square miles of clear tropical sea at the top of the Caribbean, the chain of 700 islands, uninhabited cays and large rocks make up the Bahamas. Formed mainly of flat coral, with just a few gently rounded hills, the highest point of the archipelago is just 206 feet but despite this shared topography, the nature of each island is as individual as the 300,000 people who live in the Bahamas. The Bahamas blue waters are very famous for sharks. It is always a thrill to get a close encounter with one of these apex predators, but in the Bahamas you will get a closer encounter with up to thirty or forty sharks in one dive.
With each island in The Bahamas offering something different, your best plan is to hop on a plane or push out a boat and visit as many as time allows. Sample the city living island-style, by spending a few days in cosmopolitan Nassau with its duty free shops, golf, museums and restaurants and if it's romantic seclusion you're after, lie back and relax on the pristine white sand of Long Island's deserted beaches.
The islands of the Bahamas have a strong tradition of welcoming travellers, which started more than 500 years ago with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 as he searched for the new world. Wherever you go you will enjoy a welcome that is as warm as the Bahamas tropical climate and hear stories that are as rich and colourful as the Bahamian culture.
The Bahamas enjoy the protection of the third largest barrier reef in the world. Soft corals crowd the shallow reef tops, their fronds swaying back and forth in the gentle surge. Walls of hard corals are adorned by colourful sponges from a buttress to the deeper ocean.
The presence of wrecks has always acted as an irresistible lure for scuba divers and the shallow waters of the Bahamas are littered with the wrecks of vessels and some of these you will recognise from some Hollywood films.
Bahamas Diving Holidays - Diving Information
Nassau
The diving in Nassau is diverse and apart from the number of wrecks around the island, many of which have been involved in Hollywood films, Nassau also offers divers an amazing opportunity to dive with a large number of sharks, primarily Caribbean sharks under controlled conditions.
Stuart Cove’s offers a Shark Adventure dive program which introduces thrill seeking divers to wild sharks providing a close up look at these magnificent and misunderstood creatures. One of the dives involves the famous shark feeding dive where divers will spend the dive kneeling on the sand bottom forming a semi-circle in front of a professional shark feeder that will feed and control the sharks’ behaviour. This will give great opportunities to get very close to sharks
Exumas
The Exumas are home to a barrier reef that stretches over 4 miles offering pristine reefs in relatively shallow waters. However, the islands are better known to divers for the number of blue holes and the Exuma Land and Sea Park located north of the islands covering 110 square miles. Here divers will have the opportunity to see many staghorn and Elkhorn Coral, mangrove forests, caverns and caves.
Long Island
Long island offers an incredible variety of diving, from hundreds of coral head and reef sites on the northwest lee side of Long Island to some 15 miles of explored northeast Atlantic locations. The lee is mostly calm, with little or no current; most sites afford a 'fixed' bottom, making for easy and safe dive planning and orientation. The Atlantic shelves and reefs are dramatic, with vast areas of incredible antler and other large-growth coral fields. The water here seems bluer, the fish bigger, and underwater scenery wilder. Every dive here provides a feeling of raw adventure and yet, the shore isn't far away.
In Long Island divers will have the opportunity to go on a shark feeding dive with Stella Maris or dive one of the world’s known deepest blue holes, Dean’s Blue Hole, at 660 feet from a gorgeous beach.