barbados DIVE SITES

Most of the diving around the island is on the South and West coasts, with dive sites accessible throughout the year. The water temperature remains between 25 and 30 degrees centigrade with generally good visibility and calm sea conditions.

In total the island has 33 reefs and multiple wrecks and we regularly visit a range of sites on the South and West coasts. View the site list pages listed on the left for a selection.

Barbados is one of the most easterly Caribbean islands and, with its fringing reefs, barrier type banking reefs and multiple wrecks, has become a prime diving location.

Marine parks have been established to protect the reefs from the damage caused by anchoring and fishing, as a result these parks provide some particularly colourful diving. Ships and boats have also been sunk to create artificial reefs as well as some great wreck penetration diving.

The fringing reefs gently slope away to around 80ft where they flatten out into a sand floor, which in turn extends to the barrier or banking reef, generally around 60ft at their shallowest, descending to a sand floor.

The reefs are home to a range of hard and soft coral, sponges, tropical and larger pelagic fish such as Barracuda as well as Hawksbill and Green turtles. Seahorses, Frogfish and Scorpion fish can also be found by those with a keen eye and the patience to look for them.

The wreck dives in Barbados fall into two categories. For example: The Berwyn, which sunk in 1919 has created a beautiful artificial reef and the SS Stavronikita, deliberately sunk in 1978, has been voted one of the top 10 sports diver wrecks by a prominent dive magazine. It is an excellent wreck penetration dive with prolific sea life and coral on the masts.

These are not the only underwater relics. From the 17th century sailors anchored in Carlisle Bay would discard their empty rum, ale and medicine bottles overboard. This provides for an interesting dive hunting for bottles… and just in case things don’t go to plan, Barbados has it’s own decompression chamber housed at the Defense Force headquarters, just outside Bridgetown.