DIVES SITES - PROVIDENCIA

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Saint Catalina’s Slope:

A buoy marks the site of the immersion, above a terrace at 40 ft depth with a dense coral cover but interwoven with sandy patches and a channel which reflects light and gives a beautiful blue hue to the water. You descend to a second terrace at 60 ft which plunges by a slope, with cliff walls in some parts, towards a deep, sandy terrace, visible while you look at the slopes. A peaceful risk free dive to familiarize yourself with the surroundings, without currents, protected from winds due to its proximity to St. Catalina, in splendid light, with all the richness of coral communities.

Right Channel:


The name alludes to he channel for ships and vessels coming in and out of Old Providence’s dock with a sand bottom at 70 ft depth and flanked by masses of coral. To the right, towards the exit’s path, there’s an elongated promontory with dense coral coverage in plates and heads; the upper part is at 40 ft depth and descends in a convex slope to 70 ft. The immersion, simple and secure, consists in a trip by the border between the sandy channel and the coral hill where one observes abundant sea life. It’s to familiarize yourself with diving in Old Providence and exploring coralline formations dominated by stony corals such as Montastrea and soft corals (especially Plexaura), with innumerable fish and different types of hidden invertebrates in the interstices of the reef complex structure.


Left Channel:


Coralline platform, northwest of Saint Catalina Island, on the left side of the access channel for ships and vessels into the island, where a steep slope begins at 25 ft and ends on a sand bottom between 45 – 60 ft. This displays excellent coral cover and a lot of fish life, including active swimmers like creole wrasse (Clepticus parrae) and blue chromis (Chromis cyanea); you’ll also occasionally encounter snappers, groupers and marine eagles. This site is monitored every year through Reef Check methodology by the island’s certified divers. On the bottom boulder star and brain corals and boulder star predominate and, if you look closely, it is possible to appreciate the beautiful mushroom corals, (Scolymia). The immersion could take place in shallow water for beginners or deeper for the experienced divers.


Felipe’s Place:

It’s the diving site par excellence in Old Providence and St. Catalina, named after Felipe Cabeza, who described, explored, and popularized it, just as he has done for many dive sites throughout Providence reef barrier. The tour, with different difficulty levels, which can be decided according to experience of divers, takes 10 minutes in a boat ride from the dive centers; signaled by a buoy, anchored on a coralline shoal at 35 ft of depth where immersion begins. The bottom is a terrace covered by a dense community of soft coral (especially Pseudopterogorgia) which forms a vast garden in perpetual and harmonious movement, inside of which rigid pillar corals (Dendrogyra cylindrus) and beautiful sponges stand out. Clouds of small reef fishes move about and take refuge in the coral labyrinth and in innumerable empty spaces and bends on the bottoms, where the minute coral reef diversity is hidden. Fifty meters further, one descends smoothly towards a channel of white sands flanked by hills covered in the stony coral that for about 60 ft is dominated by star coral (Montastrea annularis, M. cavernosa and M. franksi) which adopts, in those that incline most strongly, the typical form of roof tiles (shingle reef). In its steepest parts, the channel has small walls of vivid colors. After a slight ascent, one arrive at the edge of a cliff which descends from 60 to more than 100 ft and constitutes, together with the final part, the most attractive of the submarine flight. The cliff wall, concave, deep blue, descends to a white sand bottom, 50 ft lower; innumerable sponges, soft whip and black corals and sea fans, projecting from the wall change the perspective. In a cloud up, you discover that the wall is covered by the most impressive reef life: algae and encrusted sponges, corals, crabs, small fish which swim up side down, sea urchins and lobsters. In the surroundings, the possibility of observing turtles, barracudas and sharks increase. After advancing 150 ft alongside the wall, where one can descend to a 120 ft depth, a large fissure appears, evidence of millennial erosion. The fissure is a deeply carved fissure which forms an ascending strait between narrow walls, with impressive light contrasts, which leads you from 80 to the 40 ft of the departure platform. After the safety stops, one boards the boat.

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