The opportunity to visit the Dominican Republic for a few days came up suddenly and proved irresistible for MICHAEL SALVAREZZA & CHRISTOPHER P WEAVER – but would there be enough to see under water to satisfy the demands of divers who have knocked about more than a bit?
It took a three-and-a-half-hour direct flight from New York to Punta Cana, and our long weekend of diving was underway.
Many years ago we had travelled through this country. It had been the starting point of a liveaboard adventure to the fabled Silver Banks, lying between the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti, and the Turks & Caicos.
The Silver Banks is the winter breeding ground for the North Atlantic population of humpback whales, and at that time our entire focus was on the whales. Over a long and extensive diving career that followed that trip, we had never returned to the Dominican Republic and this weekend trip was an opportunity to finally dive this often overlooked (by divers) island.
We chose to dive the region known as Bayahibe because of its proximity to a notable shipwreck, the St George. On arrival we quickly connected with Scuba Caribe, one of the local dive operators, and arranged our diving schedule. Early the next morning we were on a boat headed to our first dive-site, a reef known as Guaraguao1.
Guaraguao1 is a shallow, undulating reef with patches of sand mixed with strips of reef. We immediately noticed that some of the corals were bleaching, a result of a brutally hot summer and a reminder of the devastating effects that global climate change is having on the world’s sensitive coral-reef systems. With the approach of cooler winter weather, we hope the corals will recover.
However, many corals thrive here and the reefs are home to the usual array of Caribbean reef-dwellers. Blackbar soldierfish sought shelter under coral overhangs, along with the handsome longspine squirrelfish.
Darting between the coral outcroppings were several species of parrotfish, and experienced divers could spot the reef cleaning stations staffed by bright yellow cleanerfish waiting for their next job. We also followed pairs of four-eye butterflyfish as they picked their way among the seafans and gorgonians.
For divers with an interest in history, Guaraguao reef is home to a unique underwater shipwreck museum. Cannon, a large anchor, muskets and cannonballs have been relocated here from nearby Spanish galleon sites.
Indeed, it was right off the shore of Bayahibe where the remains of the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe shipwreck were found, and where today it is designated as the living museum of the Guadalupe Underwater Archaeological Preserve.
Via Shallow
Our second dive was at Via Shallow, a nearby reef system similar to Guaraguao1. Here, we stopped to say hello to a ferocious-looking spotted moray eel as it did its best to intimidate the group of divers vying for an opportunity to take a look at the beautiful creature.
Nearby, tucked beneath the purple latticework of a seafan, we found a beautiful flamingo tongue cowrie, a perfect subject for our 60mm macro lenses. We also found a banded coral shrimp with a clutch of eggs – another nice photo-opportunity.
We continued to swim gently over the reef, gazing at the denizens of the coral system going about their daily rituals. Then we spotted an intruder, the invasive lionfish, hovering motionless alongside a mound of coral.
Lionfish have made their way into the Atlantic and the Caribbean from the Indo-Pacific and, despite their beautiful appearance, are unwelcome because they are voracious predators that lack a natural predator themselves. Still, we can’t resist making a portrait of this interloper.
These were relatively shallow dives, with a maximum depth of 16m, which makes them ideal for all levels of divers. To us they seemed more like dive-sites suited to beginner divers and, inside, we longed for something more challenging.
However, Penon Perfundo and Acuario were the dive-sites for the second day, another pair of shallow reefs with swaying seafans and clumps of hard corals. At Penon Perfuno, damselfish threatened any divers that approached their lairs too closely.
Sergeant-majors became nervous as we swam over their masses of purple eggs, and yellow sting rays flew over the sandy patches like small Arabian magic carpets.
A short time into the dive at Acuario, a person-sized nurse shark was spotted resting beneath a coral overhang, exciting those divers in the group who had never seen a shark before.
A short distance away, we found a more interesting but less obvious spectacle. There, at the top of a fairly large pillar coral, a bunch of bar jack were darting back and forth in obvious pursuit of something.
And, yes, we meant to say ‘bunch’ rather than ‘school’, because those fish really were in a chaotic bundle rather than an organised procession. We couldn’t see what they were looking for, or figure out what they were doing, but a lone Spanish hogfish was in the middle of the scrum and seeming to join in!
Before the dive was over, we had encountered a pair of large cabbage nudibranchs, a spotted trunkfish, a scrawled filefish and a trumpetfish. The gaudy colours and shapes and sizes of coral-reef inhabitants never cease to amaze.
The St George
Despite these encounters, it was the St George wreck that beckoned us most, and this site was scheduled for the next day.
The St George was built in 1962 in Scotland, originally named the Norbrae. Its purpose was to transport wheat and barley between Norway and the Americas, and it was used for 20 years before being abandoned in Santo Domingo port.
It was renamed St George after the devastating hurricane that hit the Dominican Republic (and the whole Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico) in September 1998. In June 1999 the ship was sunk about a half-mile off the beach in 40m of water. The wreck is 72m long and the top reachable in about 15m.
It took a little while as we descended the mooring-line to the wreck to spot the murky outline of the sunken ship, because of the reduced visibility at the site. But our smiles grew larger as the top of the wreck came into sharper focus. An inviting bridge section drew our attention and soon we found ourselves inside, exploring the superstructure.
The deep blue of the surrounding waters marked a sharp contrast to the rusty brown interior of the wreck, as we looked out through doorways, hatches and windows.
Once outside, we swam along the stern side of the ship, photographing a railing overgrown with colourful marine organisms. Purple sponges had established their home here, along with scores of smaller reef fish that swirled in the waters above.
The St George is an intriguing wreck and one that warrants multiple dives. For those with Advanced certifications the bow beckons in deeper water, along with the cargo-holds. One dive on the wreck is not enough but it was all our long weekend permitted, and we yearned to return.
Lens of a new diver
Later, as we packed our gear in the hotel-room and prepared to fly home, we reflected on the diving in the Dominican Republic. For us, we had had an immediate impression that the reefs were more interesting to divers new to the sport. Our diving experiences around the world had perhaps jaded us to these reefs.
But as we considered further, we connected with something deeper, something more important. Indeed, we started looking at the dives through the lens of a new diver.
We recalled the wonderful sensations of our very first breaths under water all those years ago, and the amazement we had when we first swam over a coral reef or gazed into the crystal-clear waters of the tropics from the side of a boat.
Certainly, we had seen most of what we saw in the Dominican Republic before; it was “nothing new”. But there is always something new, actually. Like the gaggle of bar jack we saw frenetically swimming above the corals at Acuario. We still don’t know exactly what they were doing there!
The diving community comprises divers at all levels. And everyone is always learning. Even experienced divers see new things and learn on every dive – even if it’s simply to learn how to teach new divers about the wonders of the underwater world.
Our long weekend in the Dominican Republic came to an end too quickly. And we learnt one other thing: we need to plan a return!
Also on Divernet: PORTAL TO TUBBATAHA, JUPITER: OUT OF THIS WORLD, WILD ALASKA, WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE SKY
