The diving off Dominica is as rich and varied as its topside attractions, from volcanic vents spewing bubbles and hot water, to submerged volcanic craters with dramatic vertical walls, and gently sloping shelves of coral and sponge. Skip the intro, show me the dive sites!

Introduction
The waters of Dominica are protected: the Southern end of the island is the Scotts Head Soufriere Marine Reserve, the north being the islands first marine reserve, the Cabrits Marine Reserve. The divemasters and instructors employ a strict "look but don't touch policy", and ask that the only things you leave are bubbles, taking only pictures, wonderful memories, and garbage. All visitors to our island of natural wonders are required to pay a small marine park users fee which goes back into maintainance and upkeep of moorings and the parks.

All dive sites have permanent moorings and there are plans for more up and down the coast as more sites are found and explored. The possibility of new protected areas is also being explored to preserve this pristine underwater environment. Unlike many of our neighbours, the sands of Dominica are predominantly dark to black, this tends not to reflect light and gives the impression of very dark deep water, this is not the case in many areas. The mooring of private/charter yachts is forbidden in these areas and safe areas to anchor or moor in front of hotels along the coast are easy to find. All diving in our waters is required by law to be done through a dive centre.

Although the dive-staff pride themselves in being able to point out the rare and uncommon, the deep waters off the island also draw in big pelagics from time to time on all sites, so make sure to look up once in a while, you never know what's out there, whale sharks, dolphin, and on one occasion a pilot whale have cruised close by groups of divers intent on finding the hidden creatures on the bottom. Many of the world's top underwater photographers make Dominica a regular stop, some anually. New species of invertebrate were found in 2001 on a very shallow dive off the shore. Flim crews from National Geographic, The BBC Natural History Unit, and film crews from Japan are regular visitors, filming on the reefs and the many marine mammals offshore. Creatures such as frogfish and seahorse, rare in other regions are common here, as are many others.

As with all sites here, "the slower you go, the more you will see", the reefs are granite based, so there are comparatively few spaces for nocturnal and hard to find species to hide by day, this is what draws photographers and marine creature watches to our island.

Click here to see Dive Sites ordered Area then Difficulty, with the easiest first. Remember at some of the Attractions a Site User Fee is payable.

Dive Operators in Dominica