🐙 It’s World Octopus Day! 8 cheers for our friends! 🐙

* What is World Octopus Day?: World Octopus Day is a celebration of one of the most distinctive marine creatures on the planet — the octopus.
* World Octopus Day is celebrated on the 8th of October every year. It was first observed in 2014 but has been an annual event ever since.
* The World Octopus Day celebration draws attention to the beauty, intelligence, and sentience of these wonderful marine creatures. But it’s also a chance to highlight the threats octopuses face — including cruel octopus farming and marine pollution — along with octopus conservation initiatives.

7 facts about octopuses:
1. Around 300 species of octopus and octopuses can be found in every ocean on Earth.
2. The biggest octopus in the world is the giant Pacific octopus, which can grow to 5.4 meters in length, with an arm span of almost 9 meters.
3. Octopuses can change the color of their skin in a fraction of a second. They do this to camouflage and hide from predators, to trick their prey, and to communicate with one another.  
4. Octopuses and squid are both cephalopods. But while octopuses have eight arms, squid have eight arms and two tentacles.
5. Factory-farmed octopuses are kept in unnatural, cramped confinement. They are sometimes killed by submersion in freezing water, which has been known to cause a cruel, slow, and painful death. Protecting octopuses from conditions like these is one of our missions, here at World Animal Protection.
6. Octopuses don’t make good pets. They require huge tanks, exceptional water quality, and live prey — and because octopuses are so intelligent, they easily become bored and distressed in captivity.
7. Octopuses are highly intelligent and sentient. They can solve puzzles, use tools, learn from experience, and exhibit signs of stress and fear.

Threats to octopuses:
While octopuses are not considered endangered, they face a number of threats in the wild. 

So let’s celebrate these amazingly beautiful and intelligent creatures today and every day of the year!

#divebvi #worldoctopusday #octopus #octopuses #bviscubadiving #scuba ...

Here’s a behind the scenes shot of the cast of Jaws between takes out on Martha’s Vineyard. Bruce the Shark used a stunt double for some of the scarier scenes as he said, “I’m a vegetarian and don’t want to eat that Alex Kitner kid.”

Don’t forget - we’ll be watching Jaws pool side on October 28th with our friends at @virgingordavillage. Bring a towel and your suit, swim and enjoy another 50 year old classic just like Dive BVI! ...

🎉📸 Celebrate 50 Years of Dive BVI! 📸🎉

We’re turning the big 5-0, and what better way to mark the occasion than by celebrating the beauty beneath the waves?

💦 Dive BVI 50th Anniversary Underwater Photo Contest 💦

Show us your best shot taken while diving with us! From colorful reefs to curious creatures, we want to see the magic you’ve captured below the surface.

🏆 Prize: $100 cash for the winning photo!
📅 Contest runs through October 30th.
📍 Winners will be announced right here on our page!

👉 How to enter:
1. Post your underwater photo on Instagram or Facebook.
2. Tag @DiveBVI and use #DiveBVI50.
3. Make sure your profile/post is public so we can see it!

Let’s dive back through 50 years of memories — and create some new ones together. 💙

#divebvi #DiveBVI50 #photocontest #bvidiving #scubapro #underwaterartphotography ...

We agree! Water IS essential to us and we need to be in it!

#divebvi #sciencefacts #bviscubadiving #scuba #scubadiving ...

Avast! You scurvy dogs!
It’s Talk Like A Pirate Day!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Baur and Mark Summers of Albany, Oregon, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate (that is, in English with a stereotypical West Country accent). 

In English-speaking popular culture, the modern pirate stereotype owes its attributes mostly to the imagined tradition of the 18th-century Caribbean pirate sailing off the Spanish Main and to such celebrated 20th-century depictions as Captain Hook and his crew in the theatrical and film versions of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Robert Newton’s portrayal of Long John Silver in the 1950 film adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island, and various adaptations of the Middle Eastern pirate, Sinbad the Sailor. In these and countless other books, films, and legends, pirates are portrayed as “swashbucklers” and “plunderers”. They are shown on ships, often wearing eyepatches or peg legs, having a parrot perched on their shoulder, speaking in a West Country accent, and saying phrases like “Arr, matey” and “Avast, me hearty”. Pirates have retained their image through pirate-themed tourist attractions, film, toys, books and plays.

So, in honor of today, Drink up me hearties, Yo Ho! Let’s toast a dram of Rhum and go chase that horizon! Yaaaarrrr!
🏴‍☠️🍺🍻🍹🧉⚓️🏝️

#divebvi #talklikeapirateday #pirate #wherestherum ...

🍔It’s National Cheeseburger Day! 🍔
And there’s nothing better than a great burger after some awesome dives in the BVI!

Did you know that the Cheeseburger in Paradise has BVI roots?

Here’s the story from the man himself, Jimmy Buffett...

“The myth of the cheeseburger in paradise goes back to a long trip on my first boat, the Euphoria. We had run into some very rough weather crossing the Mona Passage between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, and broke our new bowsprit. The ice in our box had melted and we were doing the canned-food-and-peanut-butter diet. The vision of a piping hot cheeseburger kept popping into my mind. We limped up the Sir Francis Drake Channel and into Road Town on the island of Tortola where a brand new marina and bar sat at the end of our dock like a mirage. We secured the boat, kissed the ground and headed to the restaurant. To our amazement we were offered a menu that featured an American cheeseburger and piña coladas…we gave particular instructions to the waiter on how we wanted them cooked, and what we wanted on them—to which very little attention was paid. It didn’t matter. The overdone burgers on the burned, toast buns tasted like manna from Heaven, for they were the realization of my fantasy burgers on the trip. That’s the true story. I’ve heard other people and places claim that I stopped or cooked in their restaurants but that is the way it happened.”

So as it turns out, Buffett did eat a cheeseburger—a burned one at an unnamed spot on Tortola. That means there’s no way to steer after all, which is oddly comforting. The cheeseburger in paradise is a state of mind, and if you’re eating one, you’ll know it.

From my own personal research, that place was Village Cay Marina in Roadtown. I’ve had a few burgers there, and ALL over the BVI, but one of my favorites is at @bathturtlechezbamboo on Virgin Gorda. The burger up at @nova_oilnutbay at Oil Nut Bay Marina Village is pretty darn good too!

What’s your favorite burger in the BVI? Let us know in the comments and Happy Cheeseburger Day!!!

#cheeseburgerday #jimmybuffett #eatdrinkdiverepeat #cheeseburgerinparadise ...