Dive Review of Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners: "Great place for critters", Feb, 2015, by Ken Paff, MI, US ( 2 reports). Report 8329.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	“The critter capital of the Caribbean” boasts the Dive St Vincent website, and it’s all true. I’ve dived all over the area, from Cozumel to Tobago, and Cuba to Nicaragua, and this is the place for critters and macro. Where else will you find five species of snake eels, tiny key and black brotula, and then see rusty gobies lurking under “condos” (small pieces of corrugated metal that Ray Haberman has placed in the sand flats at some sites)? Or inverts like neck crabs and pretty golden coral shrimp. I needed a magnifying glass (I brought mine, but DSV has some) for the wire coral shrimp, pea crabs, squat anemone shrimp and other teenies the DM would point out. My group of three divers was drawn here by the August 2014 Undercurrent cover article on St Vincent and DSV, and I found it accurate and informative. I would add this caveat: if you are not into critters, this may not be your place, because almost all food sized fish – not just snappers, groupers, jacks and barracudas – have sadly been taken, including larger parrots, grunts, and filefish. There are some big schools of reef fish: brown chromis, creole wrasse, creolefish, bogas, mackerel scad and grunts, and other usual suspects. The two DMs – Callie and DJ – have been there 30 and 20 years respectively, and are quite competent and helpful. They run the dive shop along with Jackie Samuel, who was really patient with me via email and phone when I planned the trip. They have a couple sites with “Orca” in the name; when I pointed out there ain’t no such big dolphins in these parts, Callie laughed and said that referred to the Orca “brick” computers they used back in the day. (You have to be an antique diver to appreciate this.) They make good use of an erasable slate. Twice the DM speared a few lionfish on a dive, at my request, and our group ate them for dinner, grilled and pan fried with garlic. Yum. They do two dives in the morning -- I was showering by 1:30 in my nice hotel room at Mariners, a short boardwalk stroll from the dive shop. I paid $999 total (taxes included) for 8 nights at Mariners, a full breakfast, and 12 dives with DSV. I recommend the deal, which is detailed on the DSV website. Mariners is a good place and has a nice restaurant (they kindly prepared the lionfish for us and only charged for the sides). There are several other interesting nearby spots for good seafood, jerk pork or chicken, and caliloo soup. (The Undercurrent writer stayed at the pricy resort 200 m across the water on Young Island. If $500 per day floats your yacht, then go for it.) It’s not easy to get to St Vincent, and there were very few tourists about in early February. Most days the dive boat had four total, including my group of three. We flew to Barbados and took a short LIAT flight to the St V airport, where we were met by Smoky, a competent driver (transfers are part of the package deal). We hired him one day to go to the Vermont nature trails and parrot reserve in the montane rain forest, and he was a good source of info on places to eat and see.
Websites	Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	All over the Caribbean
Closest Airport	St Vincent	Getting There	Via Barbados or Antigua
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	80-81°F / 27-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-60 Ft/ 15-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	DMs respected the divers; dive own profile
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners: "Great place for critters", Feb, 2015,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines